Japanese judoka (born 1998)
Haruka Funakubo (舟久保 遥香, Funakubo Haruka, born 10 October 1998 in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi) is a Japanese judoka.[1][2]
Judo career
Funakubo started Judo at the age of 6.[1][2]
In April 2011, she went on to Fujigakuen Junior High School where she was under the instruction of Yuta Yazaki and his wife Noriko Yazaki. Yuta is a former Asian Games champion as well as a Newaza specialist. Noriko is a former national champion. They both participated at the 2003 World Judo Championships.[2][3][4][5]
In August 2013, she won all bouts for Ippon at the National Junior High School Championships.[1][2]
In April 2014, she went on to Fujigakuen High School.[1][2]
She won the Inter-High School Championships and the All-Japan Junior Championships 2 times in a row respectively in 2015, 2016.[2]
In October 2015, she won the World Judo Championships Juniors both individual (–57 kg weight class) and team event. She won 5 out of 8 bouts with Funakubo-Gatame for Ippon.[2][4][6][7][8][9]
In 2017, she became a member of the Judo club at the Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group.[5]
In February 2017, she won all bouts with Funakubo-Gatame for Ippon at the European Open Sofia.[10][11]
In April 2017, she became vice champion at the All-Japan weight championships.[1]
In October 2017, she retained the world junior title as well as the team title.[12][13][14]
In September 2018, she won the Asian Games team event.[15]
In October 2018, she won the world junior title as well as the team title three times in a row.[16][17]
In April 2021, she won the All-Japan Selected Judo Championships.[18]
In June 2021, she won the 2021 World Judo Championships – Mixed team.[19]
In October 2021, she won the 2021 Judo Grand Slam Paris.[20]
In February 2022, she won the 2022 Judo Grand Slam Paris.[21]
In April 2022, she won the All-Japan Selected Judo Championships.[22]
Funakubo-Gatame
Funakuo's favorite technique is Newaza, especially Osaekomi-waza called Funakubo-Gatame.[2][4][5]
Funakubo-Gatame is considered a modified Hara-Zutsumi (stomach wrap grabbing) technique. Hara-Zutsumi originates from Nanatei Judo[10]
This is officially classified as Kuzure-Kesa-Gatame or Kata-Gatame.[2][4][5]
When she was in the second grade at junior high school, she couldn't practice Judo because of a knee injury. Thus she was doing 1000 Pull‐ups every day for a month.[5]
After the recovery, she invented Funakubo-Gatame to turn over an opponent in a prone position.[2][4][5]
Some in the media say Funakubo looks like the actress Rena Nōnen.[3][4][5]
References
External links
