Rika Takayama responds to an interview with a smile after returning home after the Asian Championships.
Photo By Sponichi
On the 23rd, Rika Takayama (Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance), a women’s 78kg judo player who will be representing the Paris Olympics, returned to Haneda Airport from Hong Kong after finishing the Asian Championships, which was her last actual competition before the Olympics. She won all three games and won, and now she will be heading into the 2024 season with eight wins, and she said, “This time, I said I would focus on the result.I’m glad she was able to follow through on her words.” looked back with a smile.
In terms of the match, he revealed that he planned to use challenging standing techniques such as castors and small soto-gari, but in the end he won two matches with his specialty ground-waza, and he reflected, “I wanted to try it.” From now on, he plans to focus on his dojo and finalize the final performance in three months.“I want to take a break and start from scratch, focusing on my body, techniques, and mind,” he said.
In fact, ever since the end of the coronavirus pandemic, he always reads the martial arts manual “The Book of Five Rings” by master swordsman Miyamoto Musashi to prepare his mind before a match. “I had some free time (during the coronavirus), so I decided to read it and thought it was interesting. Every time I read it, my way of thinking changes. Among the first movers, there are real first movers, first movers who wait and fight, and first movers who fight at the same time.” In addition to arranging it, he also revealed that he is also reading it as a tactical book.
Takayama was the only member of the 14 men’s and women’s divisions on the Paris Olympic team who rose to the Olympic team without ever competing in the world championships. Although he doesn’t usually bring the Book of Five Rings, which he finishes reading before the Games, to Paris, he declared, “I will bring it!”
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2024-04-23 16:10:05
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