Yasuyuki Muneta

Yasuyuki Muneta ( Japanese 棟 田康幸 , Muneta Yasuyuki ; born February 10, 1981 ) is a former Japanese judoka . He was world heavyweight champion in 2003 and in the open class in 2007.

Career

The 1.72 m tall Muneta was second in the Junior World Heavyweight Championships in 1998. In 1999 he won the Jigoro Kano Cup and the Universiade . At the beginning of 2000 he won the Tournoi de Paris . In the same year he won the Asian Championships and the World Student Championships. In 2001 he finished seventh in the open class at the World Championships in Munich . In 2002 Muneta won the Japanese heavyweight championships and finished second in the open class. At the Asian Games in 2002 he won the heavyweight division, in the final he defeated the Iranian Sayed Mahmoud Miran . In 2003 he won the Jigoro Kano Cup for the second time after 1999 and a month later the Tournoi de Paris. At the World Championships in Osaka he defeated Sayed Mahmoud Miran in the quarter-finals, Jewhen Sotnikow from Ukraine in the semifinals and Dennis van der Geest from the Netherlands in the final . In 2004 he took second place in the heavyweight division and third place in the open class at the Japanese championships. At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Keiji Suzuki competed for Japan in the heavyweight division, the Japanese champion in the open class.

In 2005 Muneta competed in the heavyweight world championships in Cairo . He defeated the Georgian Lascha Gujejiani in the quarterfinals and the Cuban Óscar Brayson in the semifinals, and Muneta lost to the Russian Alexander Michailin in the final . In 2006 Muneta won the Japanese heavyweight championships. At the Asian Games in 2006 , he defended his heavyweight title by beating Iranian Mohamed Reza Rodaki in the final . After a break from competition, Muneta entered the open class at the 2007 World Championships in Rio de Janeiro . He defeated the French Matthieu Bataille in the quarter -finals, the Uzbek Abdullo Tangriyev in the semifinals and the Belarusian Juri Rybak in the final . At the beginning of 2008 he won the World Cup in Hamburg, it was his last major tournament victory. Muneta remained active until 2013, but was no longer as successful as in the years 2002 to 2007.

Web links

• Tournament results at judoinside.com

Footnotes

1. ↑ Asian Games 2002 at judoinside.com
2. ↑ 2006 Asian Games in judoinside.com