A look at the 2017 All-Japan Open Weight Championships (April 29th) brackets

Official draw from the All-Japan Judo Federation homepage (Source – http://www.judo.or.jp/p/40224)

I may be getting ahead of myself since the All-Japan Weight Class Championships will be held this weekend, but most of the search engine traffic linking to my site  is related to people searching for the draw for the open weight tournament on April 29th. The brackets have been up for a couple of weeks and though we are still over a month out, I am already excited to see how this tournament plays out.

The noteworthy athletes’ names have been translated and can be seen in red. Before looking at those athletes however, let’s first discuss how they got here. The champion and runner-up from the previous year get the top 2 seeds going into the tournament as well as an automatic invite. Therefore, you see Takeshi Ojitani (#1) and Daiki Kamikawa (#23) at the top of each half of the bracket.

3 additional players were awarded special entries and were not required to participate in a qualifying tournament. Those slots were awarded to Mashu Baker (#9), Shohei Ono (#31), and Hisayoshi Harasawa (#34). To be selected in this way, one must: (I) be a 2016 Olympic Champion, (II) be a 2016 Olympic medalist in the +100kg category, (III) be a 2016 Tokyo Grand Slam champion in the +100kg category, or (IV) be either ranked in the top 22 in the +100kg IJF rankings, or be specially selected by the All-Japan Judo Federation (source). Everyone else was required to enter through a regional preliminary tournament(s).

Now, for an analysis. With no disrespect intended to some athletes, Takeshi Ojitani (#1) and Daiki Kamikawa (#23) should have a fairly clear path into the quarterfinals. For everyone else, it will be a really good fight to get into the quarterfinals, and from there, anything can happen. Mashu Baker (#9) will likely have a very tough round of 16 match with national team member Shohei Shimowada (#6), who used to compete in the -90kg category and now competes at -100.

2-time world silver medalist, Ryu Shichinohe (#12) has what is in my opinion, the toughest route to the quarterfinals of any of the top contenders. He needs a win at this tournament like fish need water and it will be no easy task. He gets by far the most high-profile 1st round match against Daigo Kagawa, who is my pick as this year’s dark-horse for the tournament. Kagawa has had a stellar judo career going back all the way to elementary school. He was the All-Japan heavyweight champion in high school and in 2014, became the youngest ever competitor in the All-Japan Open Weight Championships at 17 years and 2 months of age. This year, he finished second in the most competitive qualifying region (Tokyo), only losing out to Yusei Ogawa (#17), also only 20 years of age. Ogawa is the son of former great, Naoya Ogawa who won this tournament an astounding 7 times. I pick Ogawa to make it into the quarterfinals.

On the other side of the bracket, Kamikawa should be safe until the quarterfinals. His opponent there is anyone’s guess. The group from #28-33 is the most intriguing group for a number of reasons. At #28, Aaron Wolf qualified into this tournament having finished 3rd at the Tokyo qualifier, losing to his younger teammate at Tokai University, Daigo Kagawa. At slot #31, is the competitor that has made the most headlines, Shohei Ono, who I will reserve a seperate blog post to. Ono gets a bye in the first round, but will have a mountainous task of winning in the 2nd round. His opponent will either be -90kg competitor Kensei Ikeda of the Japan Racing Association Team or high school entry, Sosuke Matsumura, a 142kg 17-year-old, who won the All-Japan High School Championships last week. Ikeda and Matsumura will both be very tough for Ono to overcome.

Finally, 2016 Olympic silver medalist, Hisayoshi Harasawa should have a fairly clear path into the quarterfinals. Former Jr. World’s silver medalist, Masaru Momose (#37) may give him some problems, but my money is on Harasawa to get to the quarterfinals with relative ease. The final athlete on the list I want to mention is Hirotaka Kato (#42), the winner of the 2012 edition of this tournament. He’s always the one player that can spoil the party for the top contenders. His newaza is probably the best in this tournament, and his unorthodox style poses problems for everyone. He’s been competing in the elite ranks for quite a long time, and though I don’t think he has what it takes to win again, he’s the most likely to pull off a major upset.

Thanks to everyone who has been reading and supporting this blog. The traffic to it has grown considerably in the past month. I will do my best to keep bringing you original and insightful content about judo. If you have the chance, please register an account and let us know who you think will be the 2017 All-Japan Open Weight Champion.