Hifumi Abe defeats Joshiro Maruyama at national championships

The all Japan Judo Championships in Fukuoka have showed some incredible matches, worth while a World Championships final. A gorgeous tournament where five Olympic Champions of Tokyo2020 returned to the battle. The U66kg class final was obviously the most bespoke contest between Hifumi Abe (Park 24) who defeated Joshiro Maruyama (MIKI HOUSE).

It was the third victory for Hifumi Abe since his first gold in 2016 as 18-year old. He won again in 2017 and was interrupted by Joshiro Maruyama twice who also became World Champion. In 2020 Ryoma Tanaka won the title when the Olympians were protected and didn’t have to fight. Now Abe is back with a third title.

Abe is a dignified athlete who defeated last year's student champion Yuji Arai (Ippon Seoi) in the first round, which was the return match, to the right one on his back. In the semi-final, Mitsuaki Uchimura was be defeated in golden score to advance to the final against Maruyama. Both athletes have been selected for the World Championships in Tashkent though by head coach Keiji Suzuki.

Genki Koga defeated Naohisa Takato in the final U60kg, but Takato will go to the Worlds. In the U73kg category Soichi Hashimoto was the undisputed favourite and he took the gold against Aya Tsukamoto. U81kg was an interesting final between Olympic Champion Takanori Nagase and challenger Sotaro Fujiwara, Nagase won the title and we’ll be seeing him in Tashkent.

The U90kg was somewhat open and won by Kosuke Mashiyama in the final against Goki Tajima.

Good old stylist Ryunosuke Haga won the gold after Olympic Champion Aaron Wolf was injured and cancelled his participation in the last moment. Kentaro Iida though was selected for the worlds. In the final U100kg Haga overcame Takaya Yamaguchi. Heavyweight Yusei Ogawa didn’t have to fight in the final as in the semi final both athletes didn’t score and all gained three penalties.

Male selection for Tashkent 2022

U60kg : Naohisa TAKATO

U66kg : Hifumi ABE

U66kg : Joshiro MARUYAMA

U73kg : Soichi HASHIMOTO

U81kg : Takanori NAGASE

U81kg : Sotaro FUJIWARA

U90kg : Kosuke MASHIYAMA

U100kg : Kentaro IIDA

Heavyweights will be determined later.

The world championships will be held in Uzbekistan from 6-13 October.