Riki Nakaya raccroche
In brief / Saturday December 26, 2020 / source: alljudo
judo" style="font-size: 16px;font-weight:bold; margin-top: 10px;">Double world champion (2011 and 2014) under 73kg Riki Nakaya has announced that he will end his career at the age of 31.
Double world champion, Olympic vice-champion in London, and winner of four Grand Slams, Riki Nakaya has been eclipsed in recent years by the incredible Japanese national competition made up of Shohei Ono, Soichi Hashimoto and even Masashi Ebinuma.
After taking the leadership of the category Hiroyuki Akimoto, 2010 world champion, he became world champion in 2011, before losing the Olympic final of the London games to Russian Mansur Isaev. After being injured during the 2013 world championship, he came back in force in 2014 by winning the world championships, while Sohei, world champion the previous year, was surprised during the first laps.
The Nakaya-Ono duel reached its peak in 2015, during the final of the world championships in Asana, won by Ono. Not selected for the Rio Olympics his career began to decline from that point on, and after attempting less than 81 kg he decided to hang up the kimono.
Nakaya to declare: “At the London Olympics the color of the medal was pitiful, but it was thanks to this defeat that I was able to mentally grow and become world champion again in 2014. In the future, I would like to become a loving teacher, in order to to be able to give back to the world of judo. “
