Kaihan Takagi to seek spot on Australia’s olympic team for 2020

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.