Two Chinese wrestlers take bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Greco-Roman 130kg Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
On Monday at the Tokyo Olympics, Japanese wrestler Kenichiro Fumita lost the men’s Greco-Roman 60-kilogram final to Cuba’s Luis Orta Sanchez, earning him a silver medal.
The 25-year-old Fumita lost to Orta Sanchez 5-1, preventing him from being the first Japanese Greco-Roman wrestler to win Olympic gold since Atsuji Miyahara in the men’s 52-kg category at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
As the Olympic Games were being held during a time of great difficulty, I wanted to win to show my appreciation to the many people who had helped make the event possible.
They had more faith in the athletes than we had in ourselves. Fumita, in tears after the match, remarked, “I’m genuinely sorry for this terrible loss.”
Despite Fumita’s loss, Japan extended a streak of 17 tournaments in which they won Olympic medals in men’s wrestling, including freestyle, dating back to the 1952 Helsinki Games.
This streak did not include the 1980 Moscow Olympics, which were boycotted by Japan and other countries.
Following Shinobu Ota’s silver medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics at 59 kg and Ryutaro Matsumoto’s bronze medal at 60 kilogrammes at the 2012 London Olympics, Japan also secured a podium finish in the Olympic Greco-Roman competition for a third consecutive tournament.
Yamanashi Prefecture native Fumita used his superior throwing skills to win the 59-kg division at his first global championships in 2017 and the 60-kg division in 2019. To make his Olympic debut, he competed against Ota and ultimately won a spot in the Tokyo Games.
In the championship match at Makuhari Messe Hall, Fumita never got his offence going, and the Cuban built a 4-0 first-period advantage before the Japanese wrestler scored a point in the second. Orta Sanchez added a last touch of technical superiority to his performance.
That I was able to take my place on the mat for the championship bout is a tribute to my coaches and my loved ones. I wanted to give the gold back to them,” Fumita explained.
Both Walihan Sailike of China and Sergey Emelin of Russia took Bronze in the Greco-Roman 60 kg Division.
Cuba’s 38-year-old Mijain Lopez Nunez, who competed at 130 kg, defeated Georgia’s Iakobi Kajaia, 5-0, in the final to win his fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal. Both Riza Kayaalp of Turkey (the Rio silver medalist) and Sergei Semenov of Russia (the Rio bronze medalist) placed third.
Shohei Yabiku of Japan lost his second battle of the day, a 3-1 decision to world champion Tamas Lorincz of Hungary in the Greco-Roman 77 kg division, but proceeded to Tuesday’s bronze medal match since Lorincz was competing against Kyrgyzstan’s Akzhol Makhmudov in the gold medal bout.
Yabiku Started off the day with a 5-3 Victory over Demeu Zhadrayev of Kazakhstan.
On Tuesday, Russian 97 kg wrestler Musa Evloev will face Armenia’s Artur Aleksanyan in the gold medal match of the Greco-Roman tournament.
Aline Rotter Focken of Germany won the women’s freestyle 76 kg competition by defeating Adeline Gray of the United States, 7-3.
Hiroe Minagawa of Japan, competing in her first Olympics at the age of 33, fell to Zhou Qian of China, 2-0, in a bronze medal match. Until Kyoko Hamaguchi’s bronze in the heavyweight division at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, no Japanese woman had won a medal in that division.
We haven’t won a medal in the heavyweight division in a long time, so I was motivated to change that,” Minagawa explained.
My heart was in the game because it was my last, but I just couldn’t muster the stamina to last the full six minutes. I’d like to say sorry to everyone that came to this in hopes of seeing me succeed.
Yasemin Adar of Turkey, the 2017 world Champion at 75 kg, Earned the other Bronze Medal at 76 kg Along with Zhou.
Earlier in the day, the women’s 68 kilogramme freestyle event saw the 2019 world champion, American Tamyra Stock Mensah, handily upset the defending Olympic champion, Japanese wrestler Sara Dosho, 10-0 through technical fall.
Stock Mensah is going to the final, where she will meet Blessing Oborududu of Nigeria on Tuesday. Dosho, though, was able to get it into the repechage and keep her bronze medal dreams alive.
