DAY 1

Naoya Tsukahara, the current national champion of Japan, and Hiroyuki Tomita, the bronze medalist in the all-around competition at the 2001 East Asian Games, were in the same group, starting with parallel bars. Tsukahara, who failed to make the East Asian Games because of mistakes in the trials, looked ready to challenge the world this time. He made a big change in his routine on parallel bars, and posted 9.550. Tomita, the gold medalist on this event at the East Asian Games, had a slight balance check on a handstand and scored 9.250.

Tsukahara missed his consecutive somersaults on floor and thus had a lower start value. He also put his hands on the mat on his dismount on rings. Even with these mistakes, he kept high start vaules and took the lead on the first day.

Tomita missed on floor and pommel horse, but closed in on Tsukahara to within 0.175.

Tomoharu Sano placed third with good scores on pommel horse and horizontal bar.

The Members of Japan's East Asia Team, Norimasa Iwai, Yoshihiro Saito, Isao Yoneda, were in fourth, fifth, and seventh, respectively.

The 2000 Olympian Mutsumi Harada was in 8th, and Akihiro Kasamatsu missed his dismount on his favorite event, pommel horse and scored only 9.250. He finished 9th.

Today's highlight was two great vaults from Kenichi Fujita and Norimasa Iwai. Fujita showed an excellent double front (with a small leg-separation) and stuck his landing to score 9.500. Iwai also stuck his landing on his layout Kasamatsu with one and a half twist. His 9.575 was the highest score of the day.

The first day's competition decided the Universiade team. Tsukahara and Tomita will compete together for Japan at the Universiade.

DAY 2

Tsukahara was solid today and kept the lead after the third rotation. On the fourth event, he put his hands on the mat on his double twisting Yurchenko, but he didn't lose his concentration; he posted 9.600 on parallel bars. On his last event, High Bar, he showed his improved Kollman and hit his routine. Eventually, he won the NHK Cup and won both of the trials (World and Universiade).

Tomita was not at his full strength (He missed on pommel horse and parallel bars), but showed beatiful execution and great power on every event. He followed Tsukahara and finished second.

Iwai was full of spirit to climbed to third. Sano took fourth place and made both World and Universiade teams for the first time. Saito placed fifth with solid routines.

The crowd was excited by the dead heat between Kasamatsu and Yoneda for six place, which would be the last spot to make the Worlds team (according to the team selection procedure, gymnasts ranked 1-5 would be selected automatically, and the last position would be selected after a comittee discussion. However, placing sixth would be important.). Finally, Yoneda took the position over Kasamatsu with a great 9.400 on floor.

The Japanese team was finally selected for the 2001 Worlds in Ghent, Belgium, which is the first world championships under the new Code of Points. The team still has a lot of things to improve, especailly on start value. Good luck to them!