Current World Open Champion, Keiji Suzuki, defeated reigning Olympic, World 100 kg. and defending All Japan Champion, Kosei Inoue, by yuko in the final to win his first All Japan Judo Championship title at Tokyo’s Budokan, martial arts hall, today, 29th April.  By doing so, Suzuki gained his second win over Inoue and a ticket to this year’s summer Olympics in Athens. 
 
Unlike last year’s final, in which Inoue threw Suzuki for ippon with uchi-mata, this year was a very different story.  Suzuki looked the fitter of the two, outgripped Inoue constantly, and dominated the final contest.  The main action came when Suzuki knocked Inoue down with ashi-waza two or three times.  Suzuki threw Inoue on one occasion with left ko-soto-gari, and was unlucky not to score, Inoue managed to get his right hand to the mat and landed on his side.  No matter how much Inoue tried to force the pace, he failed to disturb the composure of the more confident Suzuki.   
 
Third place finishers were current World 100+ kg. Champion, Yasuyuki Muneta, who lost to Suzuki after receiving a penalty for passivity and Daisuke Mori, 110 kg., a relative newcomer, who lost to Inoue’s stunning uchi-mata followed by kuzure-yoko-shiho-gatame.  The standard of judo from the 38 contestants was superb, especially from the four leading contestants; namely, Suzuki, Inoue, Muneta and Mori.  They all displayed powerful, attacking judo throughout the competition.  The variety of techniques favoured by most competitors this year included uchi-mata, uchi-gari, hiza-guruma, seoi-nage and ashi-waza. 
 
Japan’s representatives for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games have been announced as follows. 
 
Women
48 kg. Ryoko Tani (nee Tamura)
52 kg. Yutaka Yokozawa
63 kg. Ayumi Tanimoto
70 kg. Masashi Ueno
78 kg.  Kyoko Abe
 
Men
60 kg. Tadahiro Nomura
66 kg. Masato Uchishiba *
73 kg.  Masahiro Takamatsu
81 kg. Masahiko Tomouchi
90 kg. Hiroshi Izumi
100 kg. Kosei Inoue
100 kg + Keiji Suzuki
 
* Selectors will make their final choice for the 66 kg. spot following the Asian Judo Championships scheduled to be held in Kazakhstan on 15th & 16th May.  
 

2003 World Judo Championships

by

Brian N. Watson

 

The recently concluded World Championships held in Osaka, Japan, from September 11th to 14th certainly provided surprises.  Perhaps most notably were the victories in the Women’s -63 kilo event by Daniela Krukower of Argentina and Arash Mir Esmaieli of Iran in the Men’s -66 kilo category.  Another surprise was the failure of the Europeans to take gold medals, particularly the leading French and Russian stars, there was, however, one exception, Florian Wanner of Germany, who captured the -81 kilo gold.

 

Some of the best throwing techniques in this championship came from the Asians, especially the Koreans, Japanese and Chinese.  Whereas the Europeans seemed to take a decidedly negative approach, mainly concentrating on fighting for grips, and even when they did take hold, they often failed to capitalize on chances.  Many of their contests were scrappy with few clean scores of ippon.  On the other hand, the Asians were more positive and showed the world how to THROW opponents for ippon.  This they did by making excellent use of left and right side ouchi-gari in particular, as well as ippon seioi-nage and tai-otoshi, a throw that seems to have come back into fashion, in addition to the usual favourites of uchi-mata and osoto-gari.

 

The two outstanding male and female stars were Kosei Inoue and Ryoko Tamura.  Tamura, by capturing her sixth consecutive world title, proved that she is still nowhere near retirement and won most of her bouts by ippon with a scintillating display of fast attacking judo, relying mostly on tai-otoshi, ippon seioi-nage and osoto-gari.  Kosei Inoue won his bouts with ease; no-one seemed to trouble him.  He smashed the opposition with powerful morote seioi-nage, uchi-mata and on one occasion scored a spectacular ippon with right side yama-arashi. 

 

The British medallists were Karina Bryant who took silver in the Women’s Open and bronze in the +78 event and Craig Fallon who gained silver in the Men’s –60 kilo category.  Georgina Singleton in the –52 kilo and Kate Howey in the –70 kilo events unfortunately missed out on medals, both coming fifth in their respective events.  The Germans performed well as did some of the Brazilian and Dutch players. 

 

All attention is now focussed on the 2004 Olympics in Athens.  A number of Europeans certainly have the ability to take gold medals in next year’s Olympics if like the Koreans and Japanese they go for throws rather than as many do concentrate on trying to maul the opponent to the mat, which not only is extremely tiring, but often fails to gain ippon.

 

2003 WORLD JUDO CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

Osaka, Japan

-60 kg. Men

1. CHOI, Min Ho KOR

2. FALLON, Craig GBR

3. NOMURA, Tadahiro JPN

3. LOUNIFI, Anis TUN

5. GUSSENBERG, Oliver GER

5. PAK, Nam Choi PRK

7. ISMAYLOV, Elchin AZE

7. HAJI AKHOND, Masoud IRI

 

 -48 kg. Women

1. TAMURA, Ryoko JPN

2. JOSSINET, Frederique FRA

3. SENSOY, Nese TUR

3. CARRION, Danieska CUB

5. MATIJASS, Julia GER

5. GAO, Feng CHN

7. DUMITRU, Alina ROM

7. ZEMLA, Anna POL

 

 -66 kg. Men

1. MIR ESMAIELI, Arash IRI

2. BENBOUDAOUD, Larbi FRA

3. ARENCIBIA, Yordanis CUB

3. DZHAFAROV, Magomed RUS

5. PINA, Joao POR

5. MIJALKOVIC, Milos SCG

7. OZKAN, Huseyin TUR

7. TORII, Tomoo JPN

 

 -52 kg. Women

1. SAVON, Amarilis CUB

2. EURANIE, Annabelle FRA

3. IMBRIANI, Raffaella GER

3. YOKOSAWA, Yuki JPN

5. RI, Sang Rim PRK

5. SINGLETON, Georgina GBR

7. CARRASCOSA, Ana ESP

7. FEINBLAT, Michal ISR

 

 -73 kg. Men

1. LEE, Won Hee KOR

2. FERNADES, Daniel FRA

3. NETO, Joao POR

3. MAKAROV, Vitali RUS

5. BIVOL, Victor MDA

5. AKBAROV, Egamnazar UZB

7. RAZVOZOV, Yoel ISR

7. KANAMARU, Yusuke JPN

 

 -57 kg. Women

1. KYE, Sun Hui PRK

2. BOENISCH, Yvonne GER

3. LUPETEY, Yurisleidis CUB

3. GRAVENSTIJN, Deborah NED

5. PEKLI, Maria AUS

5. HAREL, Barbara FRA

7. FERNADEZ, Isabel ESP

7. XU, Yan CHN

 

 -81 kg. Men 

1. WANNER, Florian GER

2. ASCHWANDEN, Sergei SUI

3. KRAWCZYK, Robert POL

3. BUDOLIN, Aleksei EST

5. AKIYAMA, Yoshihiro JPN

5. ECHARTE, Ricardo ESP

7. SGANGA, Ariel ARG

7. CLAVERIE, Cedric FRA

 

 -63 kg. Women

1. KRUKOWER, DAniela ARG

2. GONZALEZ, Driulis CUB

3. VON HARNIER, Anna GER

3. SCAPIN, Ylenia ITA

5. LEE, Bok Hee KOR

5. ISHII, Vania Yukie BRA

7. DECOSSE, Lucie FRA

7. VANDECAVEYE, Gella BEL

 

 -90 kg. Men

1. HWANG, Hee Tae KOR

2. ZVIADAURI, Zurab GEO

3. KUKHARENKA, Siarhei BLR

3. HONORATO, Carlos BRA

5. DESPAIGNE, Yosvane CUB

5. MORGAN, Keith CAN

7. LAMA, Gabriel CHI

7. LEPRE, Francesco ITA

 

 -70 kg. Women

1. UENO, Masae JPN

2. ZULUETA, Regla Leyem CUB

3. BOSCH, Edith NED

3. BOEHM, Annet GER

5. QIN Dongya CHN

5. HOWEY, Kate GBR

7. KIM, Ryon Mi PRK

7. BLANCO, Cecilia ESP

 

 -100 kg. Men

1. INOUE, Kosei JPN

2. LEMAIRE, Ghislain FRA

3. SABINO JUNIOR, Mario BRA

3. MAKARAU, Ihar BLR

5. MONTI, Michele ITA

5. GILL, Nicholas CAN

7. JIKURAULI, Iveri GEO

7. JURACK, Michael GER

 

 -78 kg. Women

1. ANNO, Noriko JPN

2. LABORDE, Yurisei CUB

3. SILVA, Ednanci BRA

3. SAN MIGUEL, Esther ESP

5. ZWIERS, Claudia NED

5. LEBRUN, Celine FRA

7. TSERENKHAND, Dorjgoto MGL

7. KUEHNEN, Uta GER

 

 +100 kg. Men

1. MUNETA, Yausuyuki JPN

2. VAN DER GEEST, Dennis NED

3. TMENOV, Tamerlan RUS

3. SOTNIKOV, Yevgen UKR

5. HERNADNDES, Daniel BRA

5. MOELLER, Frank GER

7. WOJNAROWICZ, Janusz POL

7. TATAROGLU, Selim TUR

 

OPEN Men 

1. SUZUKI, Keiji JPN

2. PETERLSON, Indrek EST

3. TANGRIEV, Abdullo UZB

3. MIRALIYEV, Movlud AZE

5. MEKIC, Amel BIH

5. MUNTEANU, Gabriel ROM

7. WOJNAROWICZ, Janusz POL

7. HERNANDES, Daniel BRA

 

  +78 kg. Women

1. SUN, Fuming CHN

2. TSUKADA, Maki JPN

3. DONGUZASHVILI, Tea RUS

3. BRYANT, Karina GBR

5. KOEPPEN, Sandra GER

5. BELTRAN, Daima CUB

7. ANDOLINA Barbara ITA

7. HARTEVELD, Francois NED

 

OPEN Women 

1. TONG, Wen CHN

2. BRYANT, Karina GBR

3. KOVACEVIC, Mara SCG

3. BELTRAN, Daima CUB

5. KOZIOL, Magdalena POL

5. LEBRUN, Celine FRA

7. ZWIERS, Claudia NED

7. BLANCO, Giovanna VEN