Kōji Sakurama

Kōji Sakurama ( Japanese 桜 間 幸 次 , Sakurama Kōji ; * February 12, 1938 ) is a former Japanese wrestler . He was vice world champion in 1966 in the Greco-Roman style in bantamweight.

Career

Kōji Sakurama began wrestling as a teenager in high school. He later attended Nippon Sport Science University in Tokyo , where he trained as a wrestler. He therefore quickly developed into an excellent wrestler in the Greco-Roman style. In 1962 he came to his first use in an international championship at the World Championships in Toledo / USA . He started in flyweight, won a fight and tied once and reached a good 5th place.

At the 1963 World Championships in Helsingborg , Sakurama was in bantamweight after three wins on medal course, but then lost to the Czech Jiří Švec , had to retire and ended up in 6th place.

In qualifying for the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964, Sakurama failed to Masamitsu Ichiguchi , who then also became Olympic champion. At the World Championships in Tampere in 1965 Sakurama was back with it. He remained unbeaten in six fights in Tampere (3 wins, 3 draws), but did not win a medal again due to an unfortunate competition constellation with 4th place.

After this world championship, the Japanese national wrestling team played two international matches in the GDR . Sakurama defeated Eckhard Thorun and Hartmut Puls on points.

At the 1966 World Championships, which took place again in Toledo / USA, Sakurama was then runner-up in the bantamweight world. In the final he was shouldered by Fritz Stange from Untertürkheim, who was outstanding this year .

At the 1967 World Cup in Bucharest , Sakurama started again in the flyweight division. Weakened from training, he only won one fight and finished in 13th place, which was disappointing for him.

In 1968 he came to Mexico City for his first and only start at the Olympic Games . Sakurama has good fights there, but was defeated by the Hungarian János Varga and came in 5th place.

Then Kōji Sakurama ended his international wrestling career.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, GR = Greco-Roman style, Fl = flyweight, Ba = bantam weight, then up to 52 kg or 57 kg body weight)

• 1962, 5th place , World Cup in Toledo / USA , GR, Fl, with a win over Ahmed Nahle, Lebanon , a draw against John Richard Wilson, USA and defeats against Ignazio Fabra , Italy and Burhan Bozkurt , Turkey ;
• 1963, 6th place , World Championships in Helsingborg , GR, Ba, with victories over Bernard Knitter , Poland , Johnny Nielsen, Denmark and Stipe Dora, Yugoslavia and one defeat against Jiří Švec , Czechoslovakia ;
• 1965, 4th place , World Cup in Tampere , GR, Ba, with victories over Michel Deloor, France , Hartmut Puls , GDR and János Varga , Hungary and a draw against Bernard Knitter, Ion Cernea , Romania and Fritz Stange , FRG ;
• 1966, 2nd place , World Championship in Toledo / USA, GR, Ba, with victories over Vladlen Trostjanski , USSR , Heinrich Theuretzbacher, Austria , Bernard Knitter and Dimitar Kerezow, Bulgaria and one defeat against Fritz Stange;
• 1967, 13th place , World Cup in Bucharest , GR, Fl, with a victory over Maurice Mewis , Belgium and defeats against Alex Bürger, Denmark and Miroslaw Zeman, CSSR;
• 1968, 5th place , OS in Mexico City , GR, Ba, with victories over Rudolfo Guerra, Mexico , Roland Svensson, Sweden and Hartmut Puls, a draw against Ion Baciu , Romania and a defeat against János Varga, Hungary;
• 1974, 3rd place , Asian Games in Tehran , GR, Ba, behind Hossein Touranian, Iran and An Han-Young, Korea and in front of S. Kumar, India and Allah Datta, Pakistan

literature

• various issues of the specialist magazine " Athletik " from 1962 to 1968,
• Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships, 1976

Web links

• Kōji Sakurama in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Profile of Kōji Sakurama at the Institute for Applied Training Science