Chikara Tanabe

Chikara Tanabe ( Japanese 田 南部 力 , Tanabe Chikara ; born April 20, 1975 in Iwanai , Iwanai County , Hokkaidō ) is a former Japanese wrestler . He won a bronze medal in free style bantamweight at the 2004 Olympics .

Career

Chikara Tanabe started wrestling at the age of 5. He later attended a high school in Iwamizawa on Hokkaidō and was a member of the wrestling team of this school. During that time, he twice won the title of High School Master of Japan in the Free Style, the style which he practiced exclusively. The title of high school master in Japan is comparable to that of a German youth master. He then began studying at the Tokyo Sports University , joined the Tokyo Police Department and trained as a police officer. He also became a member of the Tokyo Police Wrestling Club. His trainer was Masakazu Hijikata .

At a height of 1.61 meters, Chikara Tanabe always ranked in the lightest weight class, up to 2001 in flyweight and after abolishing this weight class since 2002 in bantamweight.

In 1996 he became the first Japanese flyweight champion. In 2003 he won this title with a victory in the final over Tomohiro Matsunaga for the fifth and final time. Besides Matsunaga, Shingo Hirai and Masashi Saito were his greatest competitors in Japan during those years.

Chikara Tanabe's international career began in 1997 at the Asian Cup. But he only finished 6th there. He did better with a 2nd place at the East Asia Games in 1997 in Busan , where he was only defeated by Maulen Mamirow from Kazakhstan . He also achieved good placements at the East Asia Games in 2001 in Osaka , where he came third behind Maulen Mamirow and Li Zhengyu from China , and at the Asia Games in Busan in 2002, where he played against Dilshod Mansurov in the final from Uzbekistan lost and placed ahead of Mohammed Rezai from Iran and Maulen Mamirow.

At the world championships where he was used, he was less successful. The best result he achieved at a World Cup was 6th place at the 2002 World Cup in Tehran . He won there in bantamweight over Hector Luis Camacho from Venezuela and Iwan Welkow Djorew from Bulgaria and lost against Achilov Achilow from Uzbekistan. At the 2003 World Cup in New York , he won over German Accountjew from Belarus and Michail Japaridze from Canada , but lost to Dilshod Mansurov and finished in 7th place.

At the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 , Chikara Tanabe only managed one victory over Moon Myung-seok from South Korea . He lost to Samuel Henson from the United States and only reached 10th place in the final score. At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens he celebrated the greatest success of his wrestling career, because he won with victories over Namig Abdullajew , Azerbaijan , Yogeshwar Dutt , India and Kim Hyo-sub , South Korea and a defeat against Stephen Abas , United States so-called small final, in which it was an Olympic bronze medal and in this fight he defeated Amiran Kartanow from Greece clearly on points (7: 0).

After these Olympic Games, he retired from competitive sports.

International success

year	space	competition	Weight class	Result
1997	6th	Asian Championship	To fly	Winner: Jin Ju Dong , North Korea ahead of Ping Huiniu, China u. Gholamreza Mohammadi , Iran
1997	2.	East Asia Games in Busan	To fly	behind Maulen Mamirow , Kazakhstan , in front of Li Zhengyu , China a. Tümendembereliin Dsüünbajan , Mongolia
1998	11.	World Cup in Tehran	To fly	after a defeat against Iwan Zonow , Bulgaria , a victory over Stanislaw Surdyka, Poland a . a loss to Nurdin Donbayev , Kyrgyzstan
1998	7th	Asia Games in Bangkok	To fly	after a defeat against Behnam Tayebi Kermani , Iran, a victory over Werapol Cottram, Thailand a . one loss to Jung Soon-won, South Korea
1999	9.	Asian Championship in Tashkent	To fly	after defeating Moon Myung-seok, South Korea a. Loss against Maulen Mamirow
1999	12.	World Cup in Ankara	To fly	after a victory over Stanislaw Surdyka, a defeat against Leonid Chuchunov , Russia , a victory over David Legrand, France and the like. a loss to Ivan Zonov
2000	8th.	Olympic qualification tournament in Minsk	To fly	Winner: Samuel Henson , USA ahead of Haibo Meng, China a. German Accountjew , Belarus
2000	4th	Olympic qualification tournament in Leipzig	To fly	behind German Accountjew, Namig Abdullajew , Azerbaijan u. Nurdin Donbayev
2000	1.	Olympic qualification tournament in Tokyo	To fly	in front of Namig Abdullajew u. Wassili Zeiher , Germany
2000	10.	OS in Sydney	To fly	after defeating Moon Myung-seok u. Lost to Samuel Henson
2001	3.	East Asia Games in Osaka	To fly	behind Maulen Mamirow u. Li Zhengyu
2002	6th	World Cup in Tehran	Bantam	after victories over Hector Luis Camacho, Venezuela a . Iwan Welkow Djorew , Bulgaria a. a loss to Achilov Achilov , Uzbekistan
2002	2.	Asia Games in Busan	Bantam	behind Dilshod Mansurov , Uzbekistan, in front of Mohammad Rezai , Iran a. Maulen Mamirov
2003	1.	Beloglasov tournament in Kaliningrad	Bantam	after victories over Sanaa Meegen, Russia, Ghenadie Tulbea , Moldova , Nursad Babak , Iran, Talgat Jaiwenow, Kazakhstan u. Mohammed Rezai
2003	2.	Dave Schultz Memorial in Colorado Springs	Bantam	behind Samuel Henson, in front of René Montero , Cuba
2003	7th	World Cup in New York	Bantam	after victories over German Accountjew u. Michail Japaridze, Canada a. a loss to Dilshod Mansurov
2004	3.	Yasar Dogu Memorial in Ankara	Bantam	after victories over Mustafa Kartal u. Ersin Cetin , Turkey, Yang-Jae-hoon, South Korea, a loss to Oleksandr Sacharuk , Ukraine and others. a victory over Murad Genctürk, Turkey
2004	bronze	OS in Athens	Bantam	after victories over Namig Abdullajew, Yogeshwar Dutt , India a . Kim Hyo-sub , South Korea, a loss to Stephen Abas , USA a. a win over Amiran Kartanow , Greece

Explanations

• all free style competitions
• OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championships
• Fly weight, until 1996 up to 52 kg body weight, from 1997 to 2001 up to 54 kg body weight, then abolished, bantam weight, since 2002 up to 55 kg body weight

swell

• Trade journal Der Ringer
• Database of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig
• Website "www.japan-wrestling.org"

Web links

• Profile of Chikara Tanabe at the Institute for Applied Exercise Science
• Chikara Tanabe in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ City of Iwanai: History of Iwanais ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Sankei Sports: Japanese Olympic participants 2004 ( Memento of the original from May 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.