DATE: November 15, 2003
PLACE: KUMAGAYA DOME, Kumagaya, Saitama
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| Award Ceremony for Men's All-Around Final |
We saw many gymnasts in the final. Due to the result of the preliminaries,
Takehiro Kashima had to perform in the second group (those who qualified
from seventh to twelfth in the preliminaries). Besides, Gymnasts were contending
for medals not only from the first group, but from many other groups.
In the first rotation, Hiroyuki Tomita, missed the third somersault of
his second pass (he planned a layout front with one and a half twist, but
he had to change to simple tucked front to seat). Isao Yoneda had a great
start for the day on floor, including a stuck tucked double-double dismount
to score 9.600. Kashima was also excellent on pommel horse, and the judges
gave him 9.725 for his gold-medal-routine. However, even those high scores
were not enough to get him the lead; in the fifth group, Daisuke Nakano
(Kyushu Kyoritsu University) had a great routine on his favorite event,
parallel bars. He used a piked belle and very high Tippelt. For his dismount,
he showed a full-in dismount, and scored 9.900!! The skill was invented
by Hiroyuki Kato (now the coach of KONAMI) and performed for the first
time at Stuttgart in 1989. Now it is called "Kato" in the FIG Code of
Points. Nakano was the second Japanese gymnast since Kato to perform it.
It is a very worthy and rare skill and only a few gymnasts have performed
it. (One gymnast performed it at the Anaheim World Championships).
Nakano also had a very aggressive routine on horizontal bar, including
Kolman and Kovacs. On floor, he brought very solid combinations on his
first and second pass. After his favorite events in the first half of the
meet, he was riding the waves while Yoneda was suffering on his weak events,
pommel horse and rings. Tsukahara and Suzuki were catching up with them
with very steady performances. Takuya Nakase (Nippon Sports Science University)
revealed a two and a half twisting Yurchenko, 9.9 start value, and made
a clean landing to score 9.600. Kashima did not get good scores on his
weak events, rings and vault even though he made no mistakes. In the forth
rotation, Tomita again sat down on his Driggs, and Kashima had a wobble
on his peach half on parallel bars. Both of them completely fell out of
medal contention. Yoneda performed a very high and solid Driggs to score
9.525, Tsukahara performed a Double twisting Yurchenko and Suzuki performed
a Driggs (big step backward) to maintain their places. However, Nakano
was still steady on pommel horse
and led the competition.
In the fifth rotation, the performances and scores were going to be very
important for the final result. Nakano was on his weakest event, rings,
but he dismounted with triple back (Super E) from layout Guzhogy and giant).
However, his poor strength elements dropped his score to 8.900. While Nakano
had to count the low score, Tsukahara hit his routine on parallel bars,
on which he had scored 9.800 in the team final at Anaheim, and passed Nakano
with a 9.625. Yoneda was remembering his big mistake on parallel bars in
the NHK Cup in July (Due to the score, he missed a spot on the World Championship
Team). This time, however, he was very solid on peach half to peach, which
he had missed at the NHK Cup) to score 9.600 and to tie with Nakano.
Here comes the last rotation. Nakase showed good tumbling passes on floor,
on which he received the best score in the team final. He performed two
and a half twisting back to punch tucked front with half twist to double
twisting back, and tucked double-double dismount to score 9.600. Suzuki
showed stoop in and shoot out with full twist to Yamawaki
on horizontal bar to score 9.450 but he couldn't catch up with Nakano,
who stuck his double twisting Yurchenko on vault. Nakano led at that moment;
then the leader after the fifth rotation, Tsukahara, came to horizontal
bar. However, Tsukahara missed his full-twisting el-grip giant and got
a very big deduction for it. His score was only 8.900 and he could not
pass Nakano and Suzuki. The final performer of the first group was Yoneda.
He had big pressure after Tsukahara missed, but he was very calm with a
safe routine, converting his piked Kovacs to a tucked Kovacs. He scored
9.550 to win his first all-around championship at Nationals (he had won
the NHK Cup in 1998, the year he won a bronze medal on floor at the World
Cup).
Because he was the alternate, Yoneda did not perform at the World Championships,
but he made the most of his experience and grew as a reliable gymnast.
Nakano, second place at this time, was very concentrated throughout the
day, and showed pride as a member of the 2003 Universiade roster. Suzuki,
in third place, spent his third year as a non-student gymnast this year,
and had a very good meet without a mistake to win a medal. The top position
was shared by student gymnasts and non-student gymnasts. The result was
as expected not only for the Athens Olympics but also for the post Olympics!!
Comment from Yoneda
"I had a "trauma" on parallel bars, because I had a big break on that
event at NHK Cup, but this time I had a very good performance and it brought
me victory. However, I couldn't perform as usual on pommel horse. I was
the alternate at the World Championships, but I practiced together with
the team members in Japan and did the podium training at Anaheim, too.
I had been ready to compete had it been necessary, but I was worried that
one of the official members might think I was competing officially instead
of him. Finally, I couldn't get confidence after the World Championships
because I did not perform in the competition. However, I was trying to
do my best at this meet because I believed that a good result would put
me in a good position for the Athens Olympics. Now, after my victory, I
am confident."
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