News Shorts: Ojitani, Haga, Baker, and Nagase Get Demotions

This post is for JW of the London Whatsapp Group, who requested I post some small “snacks” in between more researched blog posts. I apologize for the sparse posts on this blog. Coaching a judo team and trying to maintain a blog is a real balancing act. Hope this satisfies your appetite, JW!

Japanese National Team is reshuffled:

At the close of April’s All Japan Championships, officials of the All Japan Judo Federation led by Jun Kanno held a meeting to determine the new national team that will determine future assignments until this fall’s Kodokan Cup, when the team will once again be reassessed. While there were only a few changes to Japan’s B team, the A team got a pretty heavy face lift. Ojitani was sent down to the B team, and Yusei Ogawa took his place on the A team along with Hisayoshi Harasawa. Ryunosuke Haga, who will be out at least until November due to injury was replaced by Aaron Wolf in the -100kg category. Mashu Baker, who is recovering from a shoulder injury and competed in China last month, also got a demotion, being replaced by Kenta Nagasawa, who beat him back in April. Takanori Nagase, another injured veteran was replaced by Sotaro Fujiwara. The -73 category will not have a member on the A roster due to Soichiro Hashimoto’s 6-month suspension for inviting a female “friend” to his room during a national training camp. Masashi Ebinuma, Shohei Ono and Hashimoto are all currently on the B team roster.

On the women’s side, there were no major changes. World champion Mami Umeki (-78kg) and world silver medalist Natsumi Tsunoda (-52kg) were both demoted, while Yoko Ono and Miku Tashiro were both promoted to the A team. Former world champion Nae Udaka (-57kg) has had the longest tenure on the team, and at 33 years of age, she is a full 15 years older than Uta Abe. The women’s side is equally, if not more competitive than the men’s side at the moment. There is not a single athlete in any category that is comfortably ahead of their competitors. Out of both men and women, possibly the only athlete whose position is fairly secure is Hifumi Abe’s at -66kg. Other than that, it will be a very intense 2 years leading up to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

Riki Nakaya begins journey back to the top in a new weight class:

In a recent interview (http://www.judo-ch.jp/interview/nakaya/), former world champion Riki Nakaya discussed his future after moving up from -73kg to the -81kg category. Because of the points system in place in Japan, as well as the tournament structure, it is often difficult to change weight classes, especially in the second half of an Olympic cycle. Nevertheless, Nakaya joins fellow world champion Masashi Ebinuma, who recently moved up to -73kg in a bid to gain a spot on Japan’s Olympic team in 2020. -81kg is well populated with young talent in Japan, and it seems unlikely that Nakaya will have time to settle into the category before the Olympic Games, but anything is possible.

Mark your calendars for the All-Japan Businessmen’s Judo Team Championships on June 8th and 9th: 

Last year, I wrote a post about Hidehiko Yoshida competing for the team he manages, Park 24, and leading them to victory in the 3rd division of Japan’s semi-pro judo league. The rosters of each team have not been posted on the internet as of yet, so it remains to be seen whether Yoshida will be suiting up again this year or not. However, Kaori Matsumoto is rumored to be making an appearance for her company, Beneseed, in what will be her first competition back after giving birth to her son. At 30 years of age, her aim is to win gold in the next Olympic Games. Aaron Wolf, still not back to %100 after tearing his meniscus, is also rumored to be using this tournament as a warmup for his participation in this summer’s world championships. Whether or not this will be live streamed is yet to be announced, but the odds are that it will be streamed via youtube at the following URL:

https://www.youtube.com/user/zenjitsujudo/

Be sure to check in. Personally, these are some of the most fascinating tournaments to watch because of the open weight format. Hiroyuki Akimoto used this tournament as his retirement tournament back in 2016 where he defeated all of his opponents via ippon, most of whom weighed over 100kg. It is really a shame he never competed at the All-Japan Open Weight Championships. Akimoto was this generation’s giant slayer. Nobody could take on the big men better than he could. Here he is, winning the All-Japan High School Championships in the open weight class at a mere 68kg: