Moriwaki wins Japan elite title in new weight division

Tokyo Olympics campaigner Yuito Moriwaki  came through with a victorious debut in his new weight class, grabbing a gold medal in the Japanese Men’s Elite National Championships 2022 recently held in Tokyo.

Moriwaki moved up from middleweight (75kg) to light heavyweight (80kg) but remained as dangerous as the 26-year-old Olympian posted a 5-0 decimation of Julian Jhonson.

ASBC Asian youth silver medalist Issei Aramoto demolished 2018 Youth World Championships competitor Daigo Sunaga, 5-0, for the middleweight title.

Asian U22 silver finishers Soushi Makino and Shudai Harada emerged atop flyweight (51kg) and featherweight (57kg). Makino beat ASBC Asian Junior Champion Daiya Kira, 4-1, while Harada thrashed Sessyu Harada, 5-0.

FISU University World Cup bronze winner Rento Tanaka tripped Kosei Nogami, 4-1, to capture the light middleweight (71kg) gold.

Rising boxers Shodai Kotou (minimum-48kg), Hyogo’s former High School National Championships bronze medallist Aoi Yokoyama (bantam-54kg), Ren Ohashi (light-60kg), Yuta Akiyama (light welter-63.5kg), Yuto Wakita (welter-67kg) and Ryuichi Ueno (cruiser-86kg) seized the other national titles.

Altogether 100 elite boxers competed for the medals and titles at the Japanese Men’s National Championships. Eleven boxers celebrated their titles from the minimumweight (48kg) up to the cruiserweight (86kg) in the national event.

World champions Tomoya Tsuboi and Sewon Okazawa didn’t join the tournament as they took a rest following the Asian Elite Championships 2022 in Amman, Jordan last month.

The prefectures of Saitama and Aichi topped the medal table with three gold medals each while Kumamoto, Hyogo, Fukuoka, Miyazaki and Nara earned one gold apiece.

The list of the winners at the Japanese Men’s Elite National Championships
48kg: Shodai Kotou
51kg: Soushi Makino
54kg: Aoi Yokoyama
57kg: Shudai Harada
60kg: Ren Ohashi
63.5kg: Yuta Akiyama
67kg: Yuto Wakita
71kg: Rento Tanaka
75kg: Issei Aramoto
80kg: Yuito Moriwaki
86kg: Ryuichi Ueno

Don’t forget you can keep up with all of the action, news, results and photos by following ASBC on Facebook and Instagram.
ASBC website: www.asbcnews.org
ASBC Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ASBC.Boxing/
ASBC Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/asbc_official/
ASBC Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/BoxingAsian?s=08