Yoriko Kunihara

Yoriko Kunihara ( Japanese 國 原 頼 子 Kunihara Yoriko ; born November 20, 1985 ) is a former Japanese judoka . She was third in the 2010 and 2011 World Cup.

Athletic career

Yoriko Kunihara fought in the middleweight division, the weight class up to 70 kilograms. In 2007 she won her first Japanese championship. Four months later, she won the title at the 2007 Summer Universiade in Bangkok. In 2008 she was second in the East Asian Championships in Taipei. At the end of May 2009 she won the Grand Slam tournament in Moscow . Two months later she successfully defended her title at the 2009 Summer Universiade in Belgrade. In 2010 she won her second Japanese championship. At the 2010 World Championships in Tokyo, she defeated her compatriot Mina Watanabe in the quarter-finals . In the semifinals she was defeated by the French Lucie Décosse . With a victory over the Spaniard Cecilia Blanco, Kunihara won a bronze medal.

In 2011, Kunihara won her third Japanese championship. In June she won the Grand Slam tournament in Rio de Janeiro . In August at the World Championships in Paris, she lost in the quarterfinals to the Hungarian Anett Mészáros . With victories over the North Korean Sol Kyong and the Cuban Onix Cortés, she won a bronze medal like last year. After finishing third in the Japanese championships in 2012, her international career ended.

Web links

• Tournament results at judoinside.com