Japan’s Tsugumi Sakurai recorded a dominant 10-0 technical fall win over Germany’s Nina Hemmer in the women’s 55-kilogram final on Tuesday, capturing a gold medal in her freestyle wrestling senior world championships debut.
The 20-year-old Ikuei University student, who won the 55-kg title at last year’s national championships and this year’s national invitational, needed just 2 minutes and 8 seconds to secure Japan’s first victory at the Jordal Amfi arena in Oslo.
“I was able to get on the mat with confidence, thanks to all the support I got that allowed me to do well here,” Sakurai said.
“There were wrestlers who appeared in the Olympics and those that have good results, and I was able to go head-to-head against them and beat them. It gives me confidence,” she said.
In the women’s 62-kg, 18-year-old Nonoka Ozaki defeated Ukrainian Ilona Prokopevniuk 12-0 for bronze.
No wrestlers who represented Japan at the Tokyo Olympics are competing in the Oct. 2-10 event held in Norway’s capital.
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