judo fan

Long-time Japanese national team member, and 2-time worlds team member, Kaihan Takagi will seek a spot on Australia’s olympic team in 2020, according to Nikkan Sports. Born in Australia to a Turkish father, and Japanese mother, he has stated his wish to compete in this June’s Australian national championships. He stated to the press that, “If at all possible I want to try any means to achieve my olympic dream” (roughly translated).

He will continue to compete and train with his trade team, JRA (Japan Racing Association), which is also the team of Olympic silver medalist Hisayoshi Harasawa. I am glad to hear of this news, and have been a long-time fan of Takagi. When he first moved up to the senior ranks, I thought that certainly he would be the next great champion at -100kg. His physical attributes were unrivaled at the time, and he had the technique and work ethic to match. When I went to watch a national team training camp in 2011, he stood out to me for his work ethic and also the amount of attention that Kosei Inoue paid to his training. At the time, Shinichi Shinohara was the head coach and Inoue was part of the coaching staff.

Unfortunately, his career has been knocked off course numerous times due to injury to his knee and shoulder, seemingly all coming at the most critical moments.  I thought he was back on track when he won the All-Japan Weight Class Championships in 2015, but he was unable to sustain consistent results from that point on. Now, at 26, he has not been named to the Japanese national team for quite some time, and has failed to produce any domestic results of note. If it were just about any other country in the world, he would be the undisputed king of his weight class, but -100 is a pretty crowded place to be in Japan. I sincerely hope to see him wearing the Australian patch on his judogi in 2020.

Nikan Sports is reporting that Olympic champion and newly crowned IJF Judoka of 2016, Shohei Ono and Olympic bronze medalist, Misato Nakamura will both forgo an opportunity to qualify for this year’s world championships due to their withdrawal from the All-Japan Weight Class Category Championships, which will take place April 1st and 2nd.

Both will miss the competition due to their graduate school studies. Ono, is enrolled in Tenri University’s masters program and Nakamura will do the same at Tsukuba University.

Ono plans to continue his judo career while pursuing his studies, though Nakamura was a bit more veiled in her plans for the future. She has told the press that she will decide her future while pursuing her education. At this point, she has had a long career, having entered the world stage as a high school student. The lighter weights tend to be unkind to aging athletes, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this spells the end of her career. She competed in 3 straight Olympics going back to Beijing in 2008, which is a feat not often achieved among Japanese judoka. At the moment the -52 category is stacked with young talent, including Uta Abe, who recently captured her first senior title on the IJF tour at the Grand Prix Dusseldorf.

On the other hand, Ono could be making a wise decision in sporting terms. Though men’s head coach, Kosei Inoue has described it as disappointing news, it’s not likely he will be out of competition for long. He is probably the most talented athlete in men’s judo at the moment and a short rest from competition may help prolong his career. Tadahiro Nomura took several notable absences from world competition, and surely this aided his ability to three consecutive Olympic titles. The -73 category in Japan is probably their deepest weight division, and it would be no surprise if the next -73 world champion is from Japan. Ono however, is simply operating on another level at the moment and that is unlikely to change in this Olympic cycle.