Reigning world champion Kenichiro Fumita had to settle for the silver medal in his Olympic debut when he lost to Luis Orta Sanchez of Cuba in the 60-kilogram final of Greco-Roman wrestling on Monday night in Chiba.
Fumita, aiming to become the first Japanese to win an Olympic Greco-Roman gold since 1984, came up short in a 1-5 loss to the unseeded Cuban at Makuhari Messe.
By making the final with a win in the semifinals on Sunday, Fumita assured that Japan's men's streak would continue of medaling at every Olympics in which they participated dating back to the 1952 Helsinki Games.
But missing out on the gold was particularly disappointing, given that Fumita earned his ticket to the Tokyo Games by winning the world gold in 2019, adding to the world title he won in 2017.
Words of wisdom
While the pandemic limited him to just one international tournament between the 2019 worlds and the Tokyo Games -- the Asian championships in February 2020, which he won -- Fumita has long credited his success to the competition he has faced domestically.
Pushing Fumita throughout his career was Shinobu Ota, the silver medalist at Greco 59-kg at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Ota was his "sempai" at Nippon Sport Science University, and they developed an intense rivalry for places on Japan's national team.
Fumita gained the upper hand in recent years -- Ota has since retired and become a mixed martial arts fighter -- but Ota remains a source of inspiration, having set a standard that Fumita aspires to attain and surpass.
Just before the Tokyo Olympics, Ota wanted to help Fumita in his quest for gold and suddenly appeared at his practice, where he offered some advice that would pay off for his younger compatriot.
Having been tested for the coronavirus beforehand, he and Fumita sparred together when he noticed something. "You're forcing yourself too much to attack," Ota told him later. He had noticed his former rival's impatience, which Fumita himself was unaware of.
"That made me realize that I should use the six minutes effectively to put together a match," Fumita recalled. "I learned from him what I needed to beat the world."
Wrestler Dosho dethroned
Defending Olympic wrestling champion Sara Dosho was dethroned when she lost in the first round of the women's 68-kilogram class to current world champion Tamyra Stock Mensah of the United States on Monday in Chiba.
Stock Mensah overpowered Dosho for a 10-0 technical fall, a near repeat of her one-sided quarterfinal victory over the Japanese at the 2019 world championships, where the American won her first world title.
Dosho is one of two Japanese gold medalists from the 2016 Rio Olympics in women's wrestling who are entered in the Tokyo Games, along with Risako Kawai.
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