| Personal information | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Ryōta Murata | ||||||||||||
| Nationality | Japan | ||||||||||||
| Born | January 12, 1986 [1][2] Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan[2][3] |
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| Height | 711⁄2 in (182 cm)[2][4] | ||||||||||||
| Weight | 165 lb (75 kg) | ||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||
| Sport | Boxing | ||||||||||||
| Rated at | middleweight | ||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Ryōta Murata (村田 諒太 Murata Ryōta, born January 12, 1986 in Nara, Nara Prefecture) is a boxer from Japan, who will compete for his native country in the mens middleweight division (– 75 kg) at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He currently serves as a Toyo University employee.[4]
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Murata started boxing in the third grade of junior high school and attended a gym in Osaka from his home in Nara City. He proceeded to Minami-Kyoto High School and there was coached by Maekawa Takemoto[3] (died in 2010 at the age of fifty) who served as the coach of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta[5] to capture five national titles. However, after admission to Toyo University, he suffered a number of defeats in the university league. At that time, he went for training to the Physical Training School of the Self Defense Forces, on the recommendation of Takemoto. In those days, in Thailand where he traveled for a match, he saw children earnestly training and regained his enthusiasm for boxing.[3]
After winning the All-Japan Amateur Boxing Championships in the first grade of university in 2004, he captured the bronze medal in the 2005 Asian Amateur Boxing Championships in Ho Chi Minh City,[3] and the silver medal in the 2005 King’s Cup in Bangkok.[2][3] Since then, although he is undefeated in his country, winning the All-Japan Amateur Boxing Championships also in 2007, 2009, 2010,[2] and 2011,[6] he was eliminated in the preliminary round by Nikolajs Grisunins in the 2005 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Mianyang, China, and also eliminated in the preliminary round by Bakhtiyar Artayev in the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar. In the 2007 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Chicago, the United States, he won against Donatas Bondorovas in the first round, but lost to Shawn Estrada in the second round. In the 1st AIBA Asian 2008 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Bangkok, Thailand, he won over Narmandakh Shinebayar in the quarterfinal to get the third place, and lost to Elshod Rasulov in the semifinal. In the 2nd AIBA Asian 2008 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Astana, Kazakhstan, he was eliminated in the quarterfinal by Homayoun Amiri and ended in the seventh place.[2]
In 2010, he secured the bronze medal by winning over Udai Al-Hindawi in the quarterfinal of the China Open Tournament in Guiyang, China, and lost to Husan Baymatov in the semifinal. In the Republic of Kazakhstan President's Cup in Astana of the same year, he won over Levan Guledani in the preliminary round, but lost to Danabek Suzhanov in the quarterfinal.[2] In July 2011, he won the gold medal in the 21st President's Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia.[7]
In the 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, Murata won over Leandro Sanchez (24-11, in the round of 128),[8] the two-time AIBA World Champion Abbos Atoev (RSC, in the first round),[9] and Mohammad Sattarpour (22-11, in the second round).[10] He subsequently defeated Stefan Hartel (18-15, in the third round)[11] and qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics with that victory.[12] Then he won over Darren O'Neill (18-9, in the quarterfinal)[13] and Esquiva Florentino (24-11, in the semifinal),[14] and finally lost to Evhen Khytrov (22-24, in the final) to secure the silver medal.[4]