BEIJING —

Japanese female freestyle wrestlers got their campaign for a sweep of the gold medals off to an electrifying start Saturday with Saori Yoshida and Chiharu Icho booking final spots in their respective weight categories at the Beijing Games. Defending champion Yoshida bulldozed her way into the final in the women’s 55 kilograms in convincing fashion, while Icho reached the final at 48 kg, although she was treading on thin ice along the way at China Agricultural University Gymnasium. Yoshida, a five-time world champion, had little difficulty dispatching with Sweden’s Ida-Theres Nerell, defeating her first opponent 2-0. She also dominated over 2007 world bronze medalist Natalia Golts of Russia to book her spot in the final four. Athens silver medalist Tonya Verbeek of Canada was the third opponent to feel Yoshida’s wrath, losing in a spectacular rout to clear the way for the Japanese to meet China’s Xu Li later in the day in the final. American Marcie Van Dusen, who defeated Yoshida to snap her 119-match winning streak at a World Cup team event in January and was hoping for another clash against the Japanese champion, made an exit in the quarterfinals with a loss to Colombia’s Jackeline Renteria.

Icho, who had a bye into the second round as the Athens silver medalist, lost the first period to Li Xiaomei of China before rebounding for a 2-1 win to book a quarterfinal berth. The Japanese winner of last year’s world title barely escaped an agonizing defeat against Athens Olympic champion Irini Merleni of Ukraine but executed a fall in the final two seconds of the second period to reach the semifinals. Icho took the first period in her match against American Clarissa Chun but was tackled out of the clinch to lose the second before a narrow escape for the win in the third. Icho, who faces Carol Huynh of Canada in the final, has determined to capture gold here with her younger sister Kaori Icho, who won the title at 63 kg when women’s wrestling debuted at the Athens Games four years ago.

Kyodo

1 Comments

• 

  USNinJapan2 at 12:20 AM JST - 17th August

  Yoshida just dominated her Chinese opponent and won the gold. She absolutely kicked ass. Congrats Saori!

Register or login to add a comment!