World Tournament

2nd World Weight Category Tournament - 2001

The second World Weight Category Tournament proved to be hugely exciting with a number of excellent fights and a few shocks along the way also. In the Lightweight Division the Japanese proved too strong and took the top 3 places. Masafumi Tagahra opened with a hard fought victory over Autilo Rosa of Brazil where his experience was invaluable in gaining the victory after the first extension. Defending champion and favourite Poland's Piotr Sawicki opened with a victory against Mthembu of South Africa but then was defeated by the tenacious Shiro Yaginuma in a close fight. Riuyji Isobe of Brazil defeated the Russian Marcel Murakaev to set up a match with Koji Yasuda. Isobe was devastating against his Japanese opponent gaining a wazari with jodan mawashi geri, and later on with a ushiro mawashi geri that caused bleeding from Yasuda's ear that lead to the fight being stopped. In the semi finals Tagahara used some excellent movement to defeat Yaginuma to clinch a place in the final. In another close fight Fukui defeated Isobe by tameshwari to set up an all Japanese final. The final was a display of exceptional technique and fighting and but it was Tagahara who at the grand old age of 35 claimed the title.
The middleweight section was like it is so often one of the closest divisions. Tatsuyoshi Miyuki lost spectacularly to Ricardo Lechner of Brazil after he was knocked out cold with jodan mawashi geri, whilst fellow Japanese Shin Itoh scrapped through against Carlos Castro of Costa Rica. Iranian Hosro Yaghoubi gained ippon against the Russian Maxim Bakushin with another jodan mawashi geri, and then went on to defeat Itoh to claim a place in the semi finals. Two of the favourites, Australia's Garry O'Neill and Bulgaria's European Champion Emil Kostov met in the quarter finals. Kostov steamrollered O'Neill form the beginning and eventually overpowered his opponent with strong punches and low kicks. Kostov then defeated the spirited Iranian Yaghoubi to claim a place in the final. Hiroyuki Kidachi worked his way through the draw and defeated fellow countryman Yuji Shin in the semi finals. The final was a short lived affair as Kidachi characteristically game out all guns blazing. Kostov calmly blocked his attacks before launching a well placed jodan hiza geri that hit Kidachi on the chin to gain an ippon and give Kostov the title.
Clash of the Titans: Osipov vs Kiyama	In the Heavyweight category Hitoshi Kiyama was in awesome form showing his exceptional speed an technique. He avenged his defeat at the 7^th World Tournament two years previously by defeating South Africa's Simphwe Dlulane. He then went on to defeat Diego Silva of Brazil and Naoki Ichimura. All his victories spectacularly came at the hantei. The other side of the draw however saw Russia's Sergey Osipov in astonishing form. He easily defeated Yoshinori Ikeda at the hantei and then faced Masato Ikeda next. Ikeda had in a close fight defeated Anderson Da Silva from Brazil but was no match for Osipov who won with a wazari for Jodan mawashi geri. Next up was Kentaro Tanaka who was again stopped by the Russians amazing jodan mawashi geri just before the end of the first round. Ospiov had sensationally defeated three Japanese fighters already as he stepped on the mat to fight Kiyama. This was the fight of the tournament as Osipov hit his opponent with both jodan mawashi geri and jodan mawashi but with no effect on the All Japan Champion, who then launched an amazing attack in the last 30 seconds that had the crowd on their feet and that made him the champion.

In the super heavyweight category there were few surprises. The favourite was Hajime Kazumi and it really was a question of who would face him in final. Alexander Pichkunov of Russia beat Jason Dawes of South Africa and then triumphed over Yasuhiko Kimura of Japan by tameshiwari. Kazumi made it easily to the semis defeating France's Fabrice Fourment and Brazil's Sergio Da Costa to set up a semi final against the Russian Sergei Plekhanov. Previously Plekanhov had beaten Masaya Ichikawa and in the quarter finals knocked out Shinji Adachi from Japan with ushiro mawashi for the best ippon of the day. Kazumi was shaken before regaining his composure to take the decision after 2 extension rounds. Pichkunov then faced Atsushi Kadoi, who had defeated Canadian Hugo Perez and the very strong Ewerton Teixeira of Brazil after a dubious decision, the Russian ran out of gas and Kadoi clearly defeated him. In the final Kazumi easily beat Kadoi and added another title to his already impressive collection.

Kazumi vs Plekhanov in the semi finals