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Asian Games Day One: Updated Results and Photos

Saturday, September 27, 2014 - 06:03 By United World Wrestling Press

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INCHEON, Korea (September 27) – Results at 48kg and 63kg in female wrestling and 57kg and 70kg in men's freestyle at the Asian Games on Saturday, September 27:

57kg - Men's Freestyle
Gold: JONG Hak-Jin (PRK) df. Rasul KALIEV (KAZ), 8-6
Bronze: BATBOLD Nomin (MGL) df. Fumitaka MORISHITA (JPN), 5-3
Bronze: YUN Jun-Sik (KOR) df. Nikolay NOEV (TJK), 5-2

Semifinals: JONG Hak-Jin (PRK) df. Fumitaka MORISHITA (JPN), 4-2
Semifinals: Rasul KALIEV (KAZ) df. YUN Jun-Sik (KOR), 9-3

Repechage: Nikolay NOEV (TJK) df. Fahad Ali GHAZWANI (KSA) by FALL, 0:20 (8-0)

Quarterfinals: JONG Hak-Jin (PRK) df. BATBOLD Nomin (MGL), 11-8
Quarterfinals: Fumitaka MORISHITA (JPN) df. Ramil REJEPOV (TKM), 6-0
Quarterfinals: Rasul KALIEV (KAZ) df. Nikolay NOEV (TJK), 7-2
Quarterfinals: YUN Jun-Sik (KOR) df. Hassan RAHIMI (IRI), 1-0

Preliminaries: BATBOLD Nomin (MGL) df. Firas ALALLI ALRIFAI (SYR) by fall, 1:50 (4-0)
Preliminaries Fumitaka MORISHITA (JPN) df. Amit KUMAR (IND), 2-2
Preliminaries: Ramil REJEPOV (TKM) df. Muhammad BILAL (PAK) by TF, 10-0, 1:49
Preliminaries: Rasul KALIEV (KAZ) df. Fahad Ali GHAZWANI (KSA) by TF, 10-0, 1:07
Preliminaries: Nikolay NOEV (TJK) df. Basheer ALYAMANI (YEM) by TF, 10-0, 1:27
Preliminaries: Hassan RAHIMI (IRI) df. Samat NADYRBEK UULU (KGZ) by TF, 10-0, 5:57
Preliminaries: YUN Jun-Sik (KOR) df. HONG Xiaobin (CHN) by TF, 13-2, 5:41

70kg -- Men's Freestyle

Gold: Bekzod ABDURAKHMANOV (UZB) df. OH Man-Ho (KOR), 7-2
Bronze: Eleman DOGDURBEK UULU (KGZ) df. JANG Myong-Song (PRK), 6-0
Bronze: Takafumi KOJIMA (JPN) df. LING Haiwei (CHN), 8-0

Semifinals: OH Man-Ho (KOR) df. JANG Myong-Song (PRK), 1-1
Semifinals: Bekzod ABDURAKHMANOV (UZB) df. Takafumi KOJIMA (JPN), 6-0

Repechage: LING Haiwei (CHN) df. Somirshoh VOKHIDOV (TJK), 8-7

Quarterfinals : OH Man-Ho (KOR) df. Eleman DOGDURBEK UULU (KGZ), 7-2
Quarterfinals: JANG Myong-Song (PRK) df. Mohamed KHAN SHAIKHOUNI (SYR), 12-4
Quarterfinals: Bekzod ABDURAKHMANOV (UZB) df. LING Haiwei (CHN) by TF, 10-0 (4:48)
Quarterfinals: Takafumi KOJIMA (JPN) df. Mostafa HOSSEINKHANI (IRI), 3-3

Preliminaries: LING Haiwei (CHN) df. WIN Hlaing Htwe (MYA) by fall, 1:21 (6-0)
Preliminaries: Bekzod ABDURAKHMANOV (UZB) df. Somirshoh VOKHIDOV (TJK) by TF, 12-1, 2:31
Preliminaries: Mostafa HOSSEINKHANI (IRI) df. Azamat OMURZHANOV (KAZ), 5-1
Preliminaries: Takafumi KOJIMA (JPN) df. Parveen RANA (IND), 3-2

48kg - Female Wrestling
Gold: Eri TOSAKA (JPN) df. SUN Yanan (CHN), 5-1 
Bronze: Tatyana AMANZHOL (KAZ) df. Maliwan MUANGPOR (THA) by TF, 10-0
Bronze: Vinesh (IND) df. ERDENESUKH Narangerel (MGL) by TF, 10-0

Semifinals: SUN Yanan (CHN) df. Maliwan MUANGPOR (THA) by TF, 10-0 in 2:45
Semifinals: Eri TOSAKA (JPN) df. Vinesh (IND), 6-4 

Repechage: Tatyana AMANZHOL (KAZ) df. Margarita FILIPPOVA (TKM) by TF, 10-0 (1:12)
Repechage: ERDENESUKH Narangerel (MGL) df.  LEE Yu-Mi (KOR), 6-5


Quarterfinals: Maliwan MUANGPOR (THA) df. Sotheara CHOV (CAM), 12-5
Quarterfinals: SUN Yanan (CHN) df. Margarita FILIPPOVA (TKM) by TF, 12-1, 1:01
Quarterfinals: Vinesh (IND) df. Dauletbike YAKHSHIMURATOVA (UZB) by fall, 4:41 (10-0)
Quarterfinals: Eri TOSAKA (JPN) df. ERDENESUKH Narangerel (MGL), by TF,12-2, 3:27

Preliminaries: SUN Yanan (CHN) df. Tatyana AMANZHOL (KAZ), 8-3
Preliminaries: Dauletbike YAKHSHIMURATOVA (UZB) df. Kyu Thein KYU (MYA) by fall, 5:44 (11-0)
Preliminaries: Vinesh (IND) df. PAK Yong-Mi (PRK), 4-3
Preliminaries: ERDENESUKH Narangerel (MGL) df. NGUYEN Thi Lua (VIE), 3-1
Preliminaries: Eri TOSAKA (JPN) df. LEE Yu-Mi (KOR), 6-2

63kg - Female Wrestling
Gold: Rio WATARI (JPN) df. XILUO Zhuoma (CHN) by creiteria, 4-4
Bronze: SUKHEE Tserenchimed (MGL) df. KIM Kyeon-Geun (KOR) by TF, 10-0
Bronze: Geetika JAKHAR (IND) df. LY Thi Hien (VIE) by FALL, 0:55

Semifinals: Rio WATARI (JPN) df. SUKHEE Tserenchimed (MGL), 11-8
Semifinals: XILUO Zhuoma (CHN) df. Geetika JAKHAR (IND) by FALL in 5:46 (11-7)

Repechage: LY Thi Hien (VIE) df. Aziza SULTAMURATOVA (UZB), by FALL, 0:57 (8-0)
Repechage: KIM Kyeon-Geun (KOR) df. CHEN Wen-ling(TPE), 7-2


Quarterfinals: SUKHEE Tserenchimed (MGL) df. KIM Ran-Mi (PRK), by fall, 1:10 (2-2)
Quarterfinals: Rio WATARI (JPN) df. KIM Kyeon-Geun (KOR) by TF, 10-0
Quarterfinals: XILUO Zhuoma (CHN) df. LY Thi Hien (VIE) by fall, 0:48 (4-0)
Quarterfinals: Geetika JAKHAR (IND) df. AUTNUN Jaratrawee (THA), 8-0

Preliminaries: KIM Kyeon-Geun (KOR) df. Oday LATXOMPHOU (LAO) by TF, 10-0, 2:13
Preliminaries: Rio WATARI (JPN) df. CHEN Wen-ling(TPE) by TF, 10-0
Preliminaries: XILUO Zhuoma (CHN) df. Aziza SULTAMURATOVA (UZB) by fall, 2:38 (6-0)
Preliminaries: LY Thi Hien (VIE) df. MAY Thazin Phue (MYA) by TF, 10-0
Preliminaries: Geetika JAKHAR (IND) df. Ekaterina LARIONOVA (KAZ), 5-4
Preliminaries: AUTNUN Jaratrawee (THA) df. Violetta SHUMILOVA (TKM) by TF, 10-0

#JapanWrestling

Paris Olympic Champ Sakurai Retires at Age 24

Sunday, April 5, 2026 - 09:12 By Ken Marantz

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TOKYO (April 4) -- Having never really regained the motivation that led her to achieve her ultimate goal of an Olympic gold, Tsugumi SAKURAI (JPN) has decided to retire at the tender age of 24.

Sakurai, the women’s 57kg champion at the Paris Olympics, has announced that she will hang up her singlet and begin a second career nurturing a new generation of wrestlers and serving as a goodwill ambassador of sports for her native Kochi Prefecture in western Japan.

“After 21 continuous years, I feel I have reached the cutoff point of my wrestling career, so I have decided to retire,” Sakurai said at a press conference Friday at the Kochi Prefecture government office.

“I gave everything I had for the Olympics, and I was able to experience the feeling of achievement and the ultimate joy. It's difficult to win the Olympics without determination. I couldn't get back to the mindset I had before Paris. That is the biggest reason [for retiring].”

Known for her steely aggressiveness belying a quiet demeanor, and a wicked use of a 2-on-1 arm bar, Sakurai prefaced her triumph in Paris by winning three consecutive world titles, at 55kg in 2021 and back-to-back golds at 57kg in 2022 and 2023.

A U17 world champion in 2016, she won golds at the Asian Championships and Asian Games in 2022 and 2023, respectively, but suffered the second of just two career international losses at the 2024 Asian Championships, where she fell to Yongxian FENG (CHN) in the final.

She bounced back five months later for her crowning achievement in Paris, where she defeated 2016 Rio Olympic champion Helen MAROULIS (USA) 10-4 in the semifinals, then took the gold with a 6-0 victory over Anastasia NICHITA (MDA) in a rematch of the 2023 world final.

Making the win in Paris even more special was the fact that not only did Sakurai strike gold, but so did another Japanese wrestler who started the sport together with her at the kids wrestling club in Kochi run by her father.

Kotaro KIYOOKA (JPN), the freestyle 65kg champion in his Olympic debut, and Sakurai became the toast of Kochi, a rural prefecture fronting the Pacific on the island of Shikoku. They were paraded through the streets of the prefectural capital of Kochi City and hailed as heroes.

Like almost all of Japan’s medalists in Paris, the two took time off from the sport to run the gauntlet of TV interviews and variety shows, and just chill out in general. Sakurai, who returned to Kochi and started graduate studies in sport sciences at Kochi University, was particularly slow in returning to the mat.

In what would prove to be her first – and last – competition after Paris, she won the 57kg title at the second-tier Japan Women’s Open in October 2025, ostensibly to qualify for the Emperor’s Cup All-Japan Championships the following December. That would be the starting point for domestic qualifying for major global tournaments.

But Sakurai never made it to the Emperor’s Cup, and has now fully turned the corner on a new career.

“Over the past year, this decision was made after talking to many people, fretting about it, and thinking things through,” she said.

Sakurai said that as an extension of her father’s Kochi Wrestling Club, she wants to run a series of clinics outside of the city, mainly in her hometown of Konan just to the east of Kochi, to expose more children to wrestling and help it grow.

“Aside from wrestling, I'm learning so many things in graduate school right now, so I want to acquire a wide range of knowledge so that I can give back to Kochi Prefecture properly,” Sakurai said. “I think there will be various problems when I put things into practice, so I want to acquire solid knowledge so that I can solve those problems.”

Fans at this week’s Asian Championships in Bishkek will see another product of the Kochi Wrestling Club in action in Moe KIYOOKA (JPN), Kotaro’s younger sister and a former world champion who will be looking to add the 53kg gold to the one she won at 55kg in 2024. She and Sakurai were also teammates at Ikuei University.

And the name Sakurai might soon be appearing on the world stage again. Her younger sister, Tsukino SAKURAI (JPN), won the Asian U15 title last year.