is a retired Olympic champion Japanese

judoka is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...

who competed in the middleweight (-80 kg) division.

Biography

Sonoda was born in

Yanagawa is a city located in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of April 30, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 71,848, with 24,507 households and a population density of 934.55 persons per km². The total area is 76.88 km². On March 21, ...

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since anc ...

, Japan. He attended the Fukuoka Institute of Technology, and won a gold medal at the 1969 World Judo Championships along with his older brother, Yoshio, who won the gold medal in the lightweight (-63 kg) division. After graduating, he began work at the Maruzen Oil Company (current

Cosmo Oil Company is a Japanese petrochemical company. It is Japan's third-biggest refiner by sales after JX Holdings and Idemitsu Kosan. History Cosmo traces its corporate roots to Maruzen Petroleum (丸善石油株式会社), a company established in 1931, alt ...

), where he continued to practice judo. He joined the Fukuoka prefectural police force in July 1972, at the invitation of the police force's judo instructor. Sonoda had competed in the

All-Japan Judo Championships is a judo tournament held every year in Japan. The men's tournament is held in Nippon Budokan on 29 April and the women's tournament (dubbed "Empress cup All-Japan women's Judo championships") is held in Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium in April. T ...

10 times from age 19, but Shozo Fujii had won the competition for three consecutive years prior to 1976, when the championship served as the qualifier for the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 P ...

, and was seen as a lock for Japan's Olympic judo team. However, Sonoda defeated Fujii by a very close decision, gained his first appearance at the Olympics at age 29. He defeated Valeriy Dvoinikov of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

by ''koka'' from an

Osoto Gari is one of the original 40 throws of Judo as developed by Jigoro Kano. It belongs to the first group, Dai Ikkyo, of the traditional throwing list, Gokyo (no waza), of Kodokan Judo. It is also included in the current 67 Throws of Kodokan Judo. ...

in the finals to capture the gold medal. Sonoda retired after competing in the 1978 Jigoro Kano Cup along with Kazuhiro Ninomiya. He and Ninomiya were rivals and friends for over 30 years, having been born on the same year, entered the same police force, competed in the same World Championships and Olympics, and having retired at the same time. He worked as a judo instructor for the Fukuoka prefectural police, and one of his pupils,

Kie Kusakabe is a Japanese judoka. She won a 57 kg category bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Kusakabe is a graduate of Junshin Junior College. She was an officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchica ...

, appeared in the

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

and 2004 Summer Olympics.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sonoda, Isamu 1946 births Living people Japanese male judoka Judoka at the 1976 Summer Olympics Olympic judoka of Japan Olympic gold medalists for Japan People from Yanagawa, Fukuoka Sportspeople from Fukuoka Prefecture Olympic medalists in judo Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Universiade medalists in judo Universiade gold medalists for Japan Medalists at the 1967 Summer Universiade Fukuoka Institute of Technology alumni

Biography

See also

References

External links