From Kochi to the world! The Olympic gold medalist in Paris, Tsugumi Sakurai and Kotaro Kiyooka
Tsugumi Sakurai and Koshiro Kiyooka from Kochi Prefecture won gold medals in the wrestling competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics, giving Kochi citizens great pride and joy. In this article, we will tell you about the achievements of the two people born and raised in Kochi Prefecture and their impressions after winning the gold medal.
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The achievement of gold medalists born in Kochi Prefecture
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Tsugumi Sakurai and Koshiro Kiyooka won the gold medal brilliantly, and together they achieved their first feat in 92 years as a player from Kochi Prefecture.
Sakurai (1st place in the world ranking = Ikuei University), who participated in the 57km class for women's freestyle in the Paris Olympics wrestling competition, will win the semifinals without danger. In the semi-finals, he beat Sahori Yoshida in the 2016 Rio Games and beat U.S. Marulis, who won the gold medal, and gained momentum, beat Anastasia Nikita (Moldova) 6-0 in the final and won the gold medal at the first Olympics.
In the first period, Sakurai decided on a one-legged tackle and scored two points ahead. In addition, take the back and spread the lead to 4-0.
In the second half, he continued to attack using his unique stamina, and after less than the other minute, he added two points to win 6-0 and won the gold medal.
In the men's freestyle 65km class of the wrestling competition, Koshiro Kiyooka, who will participate in the Olympics for the first time, won a stunning gold medal like Sakurai.
In the first round, he scored points from quick tackles, etc., and won in technical specialty in just over three minutes.
The second round will be 8-6, and the quarterfinals will lead up to 6 points against Puerto Rican players who won second place in last year's World Championship. In the second half, we will continue to attack without entering the defense, and we will win by piercing the ultra-aggressive style that we are good at, such as trying to dodge the opponent's skills by turning over the air.
Both are the finals that defeated strong opponents, and the 2022 World Championship champion Rahman Amzadharri of Iran. After the start of 1 minute and 50 seconds, I was taken out of the venue and lost one point, but in the remaining 30 seconds, I took the opponent's back from my specialty tackle and took 2 points and reversed. I quickly put my head between the opponent's feet and rotated the opponent one after another with a specialty technique called a linkle, took the point consecutively, and led a large 10-1 and folded back.
Immediately after the start of the second half, we lost 2 points, but after that we beat the opponent's attack and won 10-3 and won a gold medal following Sakurai.
They started wrestling together at the Kochi Wrestling Club by Yuki Sakurai's father, and worked hard with each other. He successfully achieved the "Gold Medal at the Olympics", which was a common goal, and delivered the happy results of the birth of his first gold medal, a childhood friend, to the citizens of Kochi Prefecture.
Sakurai and Kiyooka won the gold medal not only for the citizens of the prefecture, but also gave dreams and hopes to the next generation of children in Kochi Prefecture.
Spy to the two who have continued to work toward their goals and showed their dreams come true! I had an answer to Kochi's solo interview.
Interview with Sakurai
Q) I think that my father's presence is indispensable in Sakurai's wrestling life so far. Tell me your thoughts on your father.
"First of all, thanks to my father, I wanted to start wrestling and be strong, so I want to thank you." Also, my father's dream was to play an active part in the Olympics, so I would like to be a target for children who wrestling with dreams in the future. "
Q) Do you have any words from Mr. Tsugumi, who won the gold medal, to yourself at the time with the goal of participating in the Olympics?
If you can continue to have the goal of the "Gold Medal at the Olympics" while being supported by many people, you can definitely win!
Do your best every day!
Q) Are there any words that juniors who work hard in wrestling in Kochi Prefecture can call?
"I think that if you have a strong goal and work hard, you will be able to achieve it. For that purpose, it is very important to spend every day with full power without regrets, so I want you to live while thinking about what actions you should do for your goals every day. 」
Q) You said you would like to enjoy Paris for the first time after the game is over. Did you enjoy sightseeing?
"I couldn't do much sightseeing because I didn't have time, but it's the best result, so I don't remember it. 」
Interview with Kiyooka
Q) Looking back on all of your games at the Paris Olympics, what was the content?
"Throughout all the games, I think we were able to make full use of our own speedy tackles and Uncle Holds after defeating the opponent."
"In addition, I use a lot of techniques to rotate the opponent, so I thought it was easy to convey to people who saw it for the first time! 」
Q) How did you feel before the game? Are you nervous?
"I was an Olympic challenger myself, so anyway, I felt like 'Let's eat all the players fighting against each other'. Also, by the last day, the wrestling competition was very active, so I was living with positive thinking, "I'll ride that wave too." "
Q) Always positive and positive Kiyooka. If you have a dream or goal, please let me know if you have any secrets to gaining confidence that you are conscious of.
"Believe in yourself that you always achieve your dream" and "Find happiness no matter how small you are in your reflection every day." 』
"Don't look at things that were not good or bad, but by feeling happy and finishing the day, you can end with feeling that it was a good day. 」
Q) I think the hairstyle was also characteristic at this Olympics. Did you have a theme or image?
“I was trying to make a hair that would leave an impression. Actually, I thought about dyeing gold, but when I use a cheerful ball, Goku was black, so I didn't dye it (laughs)."
This was an interview with both of you. Congratulations to Tsugumi Sakurai and Yukihiro Kiyooka who won the gold medal together.
Courtesy visit to Kochi Prefectural Government
On August 22, 2024, Tsugumi Sakurai and Koshiro Kiyooka paid a courtesy call to the Kochi Prefectural Office, and many Kochi Prefectural Office staff and press members met to celebrate the feats of both players.
Sakurai and Kiyooka reported that they won the gold medal at the Paris Olympics and expressed their gratitude to the citizens of Kochi for their support so far. Sakurai said, "In Kochi, I was able to support me in the midst of a difficult earthquake, and I was able to do my best with the desire to win a gold medal and change it to strength. Thank you for your support, "she said," Kiyooka said, "I'm very happy to be able to bring back two gold medals to Kochi Prefecture, where we raised ourselves. I think I was able to show my children such a dream that they could fly from Kochi Prefecture to the world,” he said with a serious expression.
Governor Takada said, "The gold medal has been won for the first time in 92 years as a Kochi prefecture, and the citizens of the prefecture are delighted. Even in the midst of a severe population decline, if the road opened properly, I had children give dreams. "
Finally, the two people handed over the Paris Olympics uniform to Governor Takata.
A triumphal parade to win gold medals
It has been decided to hold a triumphal parade in order to celebrate the feats of Tsugumi Sakurai and Koshiro Kiyooka, who won gold medals at the Paris 2024 Olympics with the citizens of the prefecture.
The parade will be held at 0:30 pm on the 29th of this month in the shopping district in the center of Kochi City. The starting point is Shinkyobashi Shopping Street South Exit Plaza, which passes through Obiyacho Shopping Street and leads to Hirome Market. Please welcome the players along the road and send blessings and cheers.
This parade celebrates the brilliant achievements of Sakurai and Kiyooka, and is held with gratitude to the citizens of Kochi who have supported them so far. On the day, the players will interact directly with the citizens of the prefecture and thank them for their support.
We look forward to your visit to many people to participate and celebrate the triumphal return of the players together.
Please note that due to the holding of the triumphal parade, the general release of the prefectural office main government building outpatient parking lot during the following hours will be canceled.
■Date and time of discontinuation of general opening
From 5:00 am to 2:00 pm on September 29, 2024
