Kazuhiro Ninomiya

Kazuhiro Ninomiya ( Japanese 二 宮 和 弘 , Ninomiya Kazuhiro ; born November 28, 1946 in Fukuoka ) is a former Japanese judoka . He won an Olympic gold medal and a world title.

The 1.90 m tall Ninomiya fought in large tournaments mostly in the open class. At the Universiade in Tokyo in 1967 he competed in the light heavyweight division and won his first international title. In 1972 he won the Asian heavyweight championships. At the 1973 World Championships in Lausanne, he won the title in the open class by beating his compatriot Haruki Uemura in the final . Two years later, the two faced each other again in the final of the World Championships in Vienna, this time Uemura won.

At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal Uemura competed in the open class, Kazuhiro Ninomiya started in the light heavyweight division. Ninomiya needed a total of 1:42 minutes for his first two fights against Fahed Salem from Kuwait and An Ung-nam from North Korea. The quarter-finals against Dietmar Lorenz from the GDR went the full distance, Ninomiya won with waza-ari. In the semifinals, the Japanese defeated Jürg Röthlisberger from Switzerland after 57 seconds. The final between Ninomiya and Ramas Charschiladze from the Soviet Union lasted the full fighting time, Ninomiya won by waza-ari. Ninomiya's last major tournament was the Jigoro Kano Cup in Tokyo in 1978 . Ninomiya was defeated by Dietmar Lorenz in the light heavyweight final, in all other weight classes Japanese judokas won in front of a local audience.

Web links

• Kazuhiro Ninomiya in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Tournament results at judoinside.com

Footnotes

1. ↑ Volker Kluge : Olympic Summer Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 - Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-328-00741-5 . P. 504f
2. ↑ Jigoro Kano Cup 1978 at judoinside.com