Kanta Nakano poses in front of his trophies on the tatami at Nippon Budokan.
Photo credit: e-Judo
« He was the most stable (sic) this Monday“. While Kanta Nakano complies with the winner’s protocol, the hot reactions of the Japanese judokas present in a half-filled Nippon Budokan reach us via the Line messaging application, the most popular in Japan. And the conclusion is unanimous: Kanta Nakano, twenty-three years old, 1m83 and one hundred and twenty kilos, was the best this Monday. In the final, he beat Hisayoshi Harasawa on flags, two decisions to one. A success, the first of his young career, that the Asahi Kasei company fighter received with composure and self-control .
Not so surprising when you know his background: Kanta Nakano is a pure Tenri Boy. After attending high school in the famous town in Nara Prefecture, he then joined the university club, of which he was captain during his fourth year. A quiet leader, extremely judo, but who could sometimes be annoyed by his nonchalance, and with a brilliant academic record. He was indeed the winner of the team event during the 2018 high school championship – a year in which he beat Tatsuru Saito – and the victorious captain during Tenri’s victory during the university weight team championship in October 2022, against Tokai . A left-hander who likes ashi-waza (sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi or tani-otoshi) and who, for his first outing outside Japan, won the Visé tournament in January 2023. This year, he won two bronze medals, at the Portuguese Grand Prix and the Paris Grand Slam, which earned him selection for the team event of the world championships in mid-May in Abu Dhabi.
A very well-made Zen Nihon since only Tatsuru Saito was missing: Hyuga Ôta, Kokoro Kageura, Takeshi Ojitani, Ryunosuke Haga and Hisayoshi Harasawa were present and determined to seek a new title. Haga, 2015 world champion and 2016 Olympic medalist, was beaten in the eighth at the flags, while Kanta Nakano snatched Kazuya Maeda in a powerful utsuri-goshi.
In the semi-final, the duel between Nakano and Ojitani, four times winner of the event, resulted in a tani-otoshi all in action/reaction of the first. Harasawa, vice Olympic champion in Rio and fifth in Tokyo in 2021 (each time beaten by Riner) placed the same technique on Kaito Green, twenty-two years old and fifth in Portugal in January in the -100kg category.
In the final, the duel between the left-handed Nakano and the right-handed Harasawa turns to the advantage of the first, fresher, livelier and who will be more active with his leg movements. Nothing is marked during the eight minutes of this final for a fight that is nevertheless pleasant to follow.
An event, which, a week after the Kogo Hai, also applied the arbitration rules decided by the Japanese federation (AJJF) at the end of January: five minutes of combat (eight for the final), four penalties, reinstatement of the yuko, elimination of the golden score and return to hantei (decision by flags). For what assessment? A spectator, like many other French judokas currently present in Japan, Rodolphe Cerisier, responsible for BEJEPS and DEJEPS training in Pays de la Loire, gives us his analysis: “First of all, I think Nakano’s victory is deserved. He attacked a lot all day, and even if Harasawa puts the biggest kinza in the final, he will have tried to attack the most. On the refereeing, then: the first big positive point is that it saved us from prolonged golden scores, often quite painful and soporific, where most of the time the competitors seek to have their opponent penalized a third time. With the five minutes, the four shidos and the decision, the whole strategy of going for the victory on penalties falls apart: going for the fourth penalty turned out to be a bad tactic, because it never fell. It’s simple, there was no hansokumake all day! It was better to attack to be sure of winning at the flags. Attitude and kinza counted more in the decision than shidos. Indeed, there was a fight where a judoka who had been penalized more than his opponent was still declared the winner.»
While waiting for the Japanese federation’s assessment of this arbitration “novelty”, the Japanese spectators also seemed rather convinced. An initiative which brings to the fore the questioning of an entire part of world judo – and in this case of the founding country of our discipline – on the path chosen by international arbitration for at least two Olympics.
Find the entire Zen Nihon 2024 below :
2024-04-29 21:38:20
#Zen #Nihon #Kanta #Nakano #convincing
