Judo: Teenager Ishii upsets Olympic champ to win the national title+

[April 29, 2006]

Judo: Teenager Ishii upsets Olympic champ to win the national title+

(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)

TOKYO, April 29_(Kyodo) _ Teenager Satoshi Ishii scored a decisive point in the dying seconds of the championship final to beat Olympic and world champion Keiji Suzuki and become the youngest judoka to win the Japanese national title on Saturday.

Kokushikan University sophomore Ishii delivered an "ouchigari" inner-thigh sweep with six seconds left to topple Suzuki for the only point in the final when their match appeared headed for overtime at the Nippon Budokan.The victory made Ishii the youngest winner in the open-weight championship at 19 years and four months, breaking the record set by Yasuhiro Yamashita who won the national crown in 1977 at 19 years and 10 months. Yamashita went on to win nine straight national titles and become an Olympic champion at the 1984 Los Angeles Games."It was a fluke but I kept fighting until the very end in the final. The ouchigari sweep is the only technique that would enable me to take Keiji-san down to the mat," Ishii said.Ishii, the 2004 world junior champion in the 100-kg class, also became the first in 47 years to win in his first appearance in the national championship. Isao Inokuma last achieved the feat in 1959.In the final, Ishii was largely kept defensive and blocked every attempt by Suzuki to execute effective maneuvers before capitalizing on a momentary lapse of concentration by the two-time defending champion for an all-important "yuko" point."I didn't have any fun at all today. I tried not to lose but didn't fight for a win. In that sense, it was natural that I lost to Ishii," said Suzuki, the winner in over 100 kg at the 2004 Athens Olympics and in 100 kg at last year's world championships in Cairo.

Fonte: http://www.tmcnet.com/