Japan confirms: U73kg is wide open with selection Hashimoto

The selection of the Japanese team for the 2023 World Championships in Doha made one thing clear. Without Shohei Ono, Soichi Hashimoto will get all space to try to regain the world title. With the sudden retirement his division is now wide open.

So dominant was Shohei Ono whenever he takes part in a competition, the discussion was never who would win the U73kg division but who would face him in the final.

Now that Ono has decided to retire from competition, top prospects include Lasha Shavdatuashvili (GEO), Hidayat Heydarov (AZE), and Tsogtbaatar Tsend-Ochir (MGL). Other top players with great potential in that category include Arthur Margelidon (CAN) and Manuel Lombardo (ITA).

But the player who is the main beneficiary of Ono's retirement is none other than his compatriot Soichi Hashimoto. A former World Champion and double World silver medalist, Hashimoto has always played second fiddle to Ono and will now represent Japan at the Doha Worlds next year.

Prior to this, it was always assumed that Hashimoto would have a tough time securing the 2024 Olympic spot because unlike in the World's where it's possible for a country to send two players for a specific division, in the Olympics, only one player is allowed per division.

When Ono missed the Japanese trials and was not able to go for the World Championships in Tashkent, Hashimoto was sent and made it to the final. Hashimoto had also made it to the final of this year's Paris Grand Slam before that and was the winner at the recent Tokyo Grand Slam.

All in all, it's been a pretty good year for Hashimoto. He didn't always win the gold but he made it to the finals of the competitions he took part in, whereas Ono didn't compete at all. This was why Hashimoto's world ranking is 4th while Ono's is 44th!

This has led some pundits to say that Ono will have to start competing if he wants to get the points to qualify for Paris 2024. Of course, the assumption again is that if Ono competes, he will win and thus could easily rack up the points he needs. It's the same assumption people make of Teddy Riner, who is another top champion who doesn't compete a lot but can easily make the points when he needs to.

For the Olympics, the Japanese usually use the All-Japan Weight Class Championships as a kind of trial for the Olympics. If they have more than one player who qualifies for the Olympics, the one who wins the All-Japan's will usually be chosen though this is not always the case.

In 1996, for example, the late, great Toshihiko Koga lost in the Japanese trials but was chosen to go for the Atlanta Olympics nevertheless, on account of his superb track record internationally.

What if Hashimoto were to beat Ono in the Japanese trials for Paris 2024? Would the federation have chosen Hashimoto or would they have still given the spot to Ono? Given what had happened with Koga in 1996, no one can say with any confidence that all Hashimoto has to do to earn his spot in the Olympic team is to beat Ono.

It's tough being a top player in Japan. Just ask Joshiro Maruyama and Ai Shishime. Both are double World Champions, which is no mean feat. Yet, they have to play second fiddle to Hifumi Abe and Uta Abe, respectively.

Now that Ono is no longer in the picture, the question of whether Hashimoto would be chosen if he were to beat Ono is purely academic. Hashimoto's focus now is on beating international rivals.

Hashimoto has fought Shavdatuashvili four times and won three of those bouts. He is something a of a bogeyman for the talented Hidayat Heydarov, who has fought and lost to Hashimoto six times. Hashimoto has fought the newly-crowned World Champion Tsend-Ochir twice and it's one win a piece. He's fought Margelidon four times and won three of those exchanges. Lombardo is new to this category and Hashimoto has not fought him yet.

With the exception of Heydarov, who doesn't seem to know how to deal with Hashimoto; and Lombardo, who is yet to face him, the rest have beaten him before. Hashimoto cannot afford to be complacent but his biggest stumbling block, Ono, is now out of the way.