WKO 24th All-Japan Weight Category 2007

[kakatootoshi]

WKO 24th All-Japan Weight Category 2007, May 19th


The tournament draw of the 24th All-Japan Weight, also the final selection tournament for the 9th World Tournament, has been decided.

http://www.shinkyokushinkai.co.jp/dl/24weit.xls
(in Japanese only, English one usually come later)

OSU!

[goldberg2310]

hi kakatootoshi,

please let us know:

are there only selected fighters? number of fighters, f. i. lightweight 16?

thanks.

OSU!

[kakatootoshi]

Dear goldberg2310,
This is the full draw of the event.
Please forgive me for not translating the full draw as this is too time-consuming and the english one will soon be available from their website.

As for the number of competitors (men/women),
Lightweight: 124/16
Middleweight: 78/8
Heavyweight: 51/8
What do you mean by f. i. lightweight 16?
If you would like to find out the draw information about a specific fighter I will try my best to tell you.

OSU!

[kakatootoshi]

Some notable fighters include:
Lightweight: Tanigawa Kou, Kikuhara Yoshiaki, Wakatsuki Wakataka(Yoshukai)

Middleweight: Yoshida Tomiwa, Sato Yoshitaka, Saeki Takenori, Shimamoto Kazufumi, Takezawa Tsuyoshi, Yamamoto Kazuhito

Heavyweight: Niiho Satoshi, Sakamoto Shinji, Mori Kenta, Koizumi Hideyuki, Kashiwagi Nobuhiro, Maekawa Kenji, Hirayama Ryutaro, Watanabe Taishi, Morimura Kenshin (who lost to Dedik in 05 Matsui world weight after one encho), Kuno Kiyohide

With the participation of some great veterans this year (Tanigawa, Saeki, Niiho, Kashiwagi), in this tournament we will see if experience and skill can really overcome age in kyokushin fighting.

OSU!

[goldberg2310]

hi kakatootoshi,

thank you very much for this information.

sorry for my undefinied question. i wanna know, if the participants has to qualify for the all japan, cause it seems the places are limited.

i miss the heavyweights like suzuki, tsukamoto. did they not participate, depending on qualification of all japan open 2006?

and yes, it would be interested, if there will be a new star in japan. the veterans have ruled the all japan open...

domo arigato!

OSU!

[kakatootoshi]

Dear goldberg2310,
I do not think they have be qualified for the All-Japan first (not sure if it is the other way round) because you have lot fewer people in All-Japan.
The best four of last year's All-Japan went straight to this year's WT.
In the recent shoudan shinsakai, Kikuhara fought Tanigawa twice and both hikiwake. It may not actually mean much but yes new stars will inject energy into karate. And after this WT I guess there will be a massive wave of retirement among the veterans.

And Morikawa, who recently became champion in his category in Diamond Cup, will fight in this tournament (lightweight).

OSU!

[goldberg2310]

hello kakatootoshi,

thanks again for good information. ;-)

i saw morikawa fighting in antwerp. he is an able young fighter. seems to me, he is not much older than 20years??? do you know if he is a student of kunihiro suzuki? at this tournament nozomi kanemitsu has done a good job too. would be nice to see her in a fight with this powerful german lightweight girl who´s gaining first place in her division. ;-)

OSU!

[kakatootoshi]

Dear goldberg,
Yes Morikawa is just 18 and he is a student of Shihan Suzuki. Masuko, another student of Shihan Suzuki, will be in the same category as Kanemitsu (Masuko came second last year and she beated Kanemitsu).

OSU!

[goldberg2310]

hello kakatootoshi,

you´re well informed.
thank you information. maybe i´ll stay in october in tokio at wt. maybe meet you there...

OSU!

[yoshukai]

hello kakatootoshi,

Wakatsuki(Yoshukai) is a very good fighter. I have seen him fight many times. He won the byakurenkaikan all japan lightweight in 2002 or 2003 and second plance in byakuren's world tournament lightweight. I am very excited to see how he does. OSU!

[kakatootoshi]

Dear yoshukai,
Yoshukai certainly has a great reputation in Japan. Though I am not familiar with the names of their fighters, whenever I hear about Yoshukai, the name of Sensei Wakatsuki will always come up at the same time so I know that he must be the top man from Yoshukai! I hope Sensei Wakatsui will show us the power of Yoshukai Karate in the tournament and I wish him all the best (Sorry I cannot say "I wish him win" because I am from Kyokushin ).

OSU!