A well-known sportsman in the past, and now a coach Kazuhiko Tokuno led the national team of Turkmenistan in judo. For two years, as the head coach of the national team, he will train judoists of Turkmenistan for world championships and other major international competitions. The correspondent of «GA» was informed about this in the Judo Federation of Turkmenistan.

Kazuhiko Tokuno, who turned 49 on the 1st of May, as an athlete competed in the weight category up to 60 kg and very successfully. In 1995 he became the champion of Asia in 1995 in New Delhi, and in 1998 he won the XIII Summer Asian Games in 1998 in Bangkok. At the world championships, he won medals twice: in 1999 in Birmingham - silver, and in 2001 in Munich - bronze.

At the end of his career as an athlete, Kazuhiko Tokuno led the Japanese women's teams of all ages as a coach for many years, as well as the Komatsu club team. In 2011, the International Judo Federation (IJF) recognized him as the best coach among women's team mentors. Trained a number of medalists of world championships, Olympic Games, World Universiades, Asian Championships, Asian Games and other major international tournaments. Among his famous students are the 2011 World Champion in Tokyo and the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, the silver medalist of the 2012 Olympic Games in London Mika Sugimota (weight category over 78 kg), the two-time world champion in 2010 and 2011 in Tokyo and Paris, the winner 2009 Summer Universiade in Belgrade, 2015 Asian champion in Kuwait Haruna Asami (up to 48 kg), 2014 world champion in Chelyabinsk Nae Udaka (up to 57 kg), 2018 world champion in Baku, bronze medalist of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo Tsukasa Yoshida (up to 57 kg) and many other judoists.

Kazuhiko Tokuno is the owner of the seventh dan Kodokan judo.

According to the Judo Federation of Turkmenistan, the Japanese specialist has been given the task of helping our judoists achieve even greater success at major tournaments held under the auspices of the IJF and win licenses to participate in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.