is a retired amateur Japanese freestyle wrestler, who competed in the men's middleweight category. He achieved top eight finishes in the 74-kg division at the Asian Games (2002 and 2006), scored two bronze medals at the 2001 and 2004 Asian Wrestling Championships, and also represented his nation Japan at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Before his sporting career ended in late 2006, Obata trained as part of the men's freestyle wrestling squad at

Yamanashi Gakuin University Yamanashi Gakuin University (Japanese: 山梨学院大学, ''Yamanashi gakuin daigaku'') (YGU) is a university in Kōfu, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. Yamanashi Gakuin was founded in 1946. Today, it is a comprehensive educational institution that ...

under his coach and mentor Yuji Takada. Obata emerged into the global spotlight by taking home the bronze medal in the 76-kg division at the 2001 Asian Wrestling Championships in

Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar (; mn, Улаанбаатар, , "Red Hero"), previously anglicized as Ulan Bator, is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia. It is the coldest capital city in the world, on average. The municipality is located in north ce ...

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

. He also entered the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea as one of the heavy medal favorites in the middleweight category, but left empty-handed with a seventh-place finish. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, Obata qualified for his first Japanese squad in the men's 74 kg class. Earlier in the process, he rounded out the top ten spots at the 2003 World Wrestling Championships in

New York City, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and then guaranteed his spot on the Japanese team by placing third from the

Asian Championships An Asian Championship is a top level international sports competition between Asian athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. List of Championships (Summer Olympic Sports) ;Aquatics * Asia ...

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. He easily ousted India's

Sujeet Maan Sujeet Maan ( hi, सुजीत मान; born 15 December 1978 in New Delhi) is a retired amateur Indian freestyle wrestler, who competed in the men's middleweight category. He achieved top six finishes in the 74-kg division at the Asian Ga ...

on his opening match 8–0, but could not resemble a scoring margin to turn down Cuba's Iván Fundora on the mat in his second bout. Placing second in the prelim pool and twelfth in the final standings, Obata's performance fell short to put him further into the quarterfinals. At the

2006 Asian Games 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

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, Obata notched a pair of two easy victories in the same tournament, but could not score enough points to dismantle Uzbekistan's

Soslan Tigiev Soslan Tigiev (born October 12, 1983 in Vladikavkaz) is a Russian and Uzbekistani wrestler of Ossetian descent who competed in the freestyle 74 kg category. He was the 2006 Asian Games bronze medalist. Tigiev was initially awarded a silver ...

for the bronze medal 0–4, dropping him to fifth.

References

External links

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JOC Profile
1980 births Living people Olympic wrestlers for Japan Wrestlers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 2002 Asian Games Wrestlers at the 2006 Asian Games Sportspeople from Yamaguchi Prefecture Japanese male sport wrestlers Asian Games competitors for Japan Asian Wrestling Championships medalists 20th-century Japanese people 21st-century Japanese people {{Japan-wrestling-bio-stub