Highlights of the ASBC National Federations – Japan’s biggest star Ryota Murata was Olympic Champion in 2012

The Asian Boxing Confederation introduces the best moments of its affiliated Asian National Federations launching a new PR campaign, the Highlights of the ASBC National Federations. Japan claimed two gold medals in the Olympic Games where their biggest star was Ryota Murata who earned the title in the London 2012 edition. Japan hosted the Olympic Games, the Asian Games and the Asian Boxing Championships a few times in their sport history.

Japan competed first in the Olympic Games in 1928 at the Amsterdam edition and became one of the pioneer Asian nations in the multisport event. Japan achieved two gold and three bronze medals in the history of the Olympic Games where their first title was achieved by Takao Sakurai at the bantamweight (54kg) in 1964. He was Asia’s first ever Olympic Champion in boxing in the Tokyo 1964 Games.

AIBA World Boxing Championships silver medallist Ryota Murata was Japan’s secret favourite at the London 2012 Olympic Games where he was seeded and started with a triumph over Algeria’s Abdelmalek Rahou. He was able to eliminate also Turkey’s European Championships silver medallist Adem Kilicci in the quarter-final. Murata met with Uzbekistan’s Abbos Atoev in the semi-final of the Games and he could beat his tough rival in a narrow contest.

Other favourites such as Ukraine’s Ievgen Khytrov and Great Britain’s Anthony Ogogo were eliminated therefore he had to fight against Brazil’s Esquiva Falcao Florentino for the gold which contest was a hard way to the glory for Murata but he could win the title of the middleweight (75kg) in London. Japan’s another hero Satoshi Shimizu claimed bronze medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games which was their most successful event.

Japan achieved 13 gold, 13 silver and 38 bronze medals in the history of the Asian Games and the country is Rank No. 6 in the overall medal table. Kazuma Fujimoto was their first Asian Games winner in 1954 while their last champion Tsuyoshi Yaegashi claimed gold medal at the 1994 edition. Japan hosted the Asian Games twice during its history, first in Tokyo in 1958 and in Hiroshima in 1994.

Japan claimed two gold medals in the first edition of the Asian Boxing Championships in Bangkok in 1963. The Japanese boxers impressed in the event mostly in the 1970s and 1980s when the country achieved high number of medals. Japan won the medal table with six gold medals in the Yokohama 1975 Asian Boxing Championships which was their peak performance in the history of the event.

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