Men's Team Qualification
(Saturday, August 16, 2003)
We started the competition on horizontal
bar in session 2 on Day 1. All five gymnasts hit every routine. Except for Yushi Sato, whose start value was
somehow miscalculated, the scores were very good, considering that we were in
the early session. Takehiro Kashima got the best score (9.700), and qualified
for apparatus finals.
Although we were in a good mood in the
first rotation, we struggled on floor. It was the recurring nightmare of the Sydney Olympics. Three of
our five gymnasts went out of bounds, and the leadoff, Akihiro Kasamatsu, had a
little trouble on his dismount (he could not do his rebound barani after his
back sommie with two and a half twist, thus losing 0.1 of start value). The final competitor, Naoya Tsukahara hit
his routine, which brought us hope for the next event.
On pommel horse, we expected to be
overwhelming, and we almost were. The
leadoff, Sato, had a very big wobble on his russian wende. The three others
were good, including Kashima's 9.675, but Hiroyuki Tomita and Sato wobbled on
Wu Guonian and double scissors respectively. Anyhow, we did not have to count
any fall on this event.
Rings were the most reliable event for
us, and actually we scored very well.
Sato started this event for Japan scoring 9.537. Even Kashima, whose weakest event is rings, scored 9.312. The highlight was from Tomita and Tatsuya
Yamada, who showed very powerful and beautiful performances, and scored 9.675
and 9.700 respectively.
We had a little problem of landing on vault. Kashima landed with a big
step backward, and Kasamatsu and Tsukahara stepped outside of the side
lines. The biggest error was from Tomita. He sat down in on his Driggs
(Kasamatsu with one and a half twist). Those gymnasts who want to qualify
for vault finals must perform two vaults in the preliminary competition. No Japanese gymnast
performed two vaults in the preliminaries, so, therefore, no Japanese gymnast
qualified for vault event finals.
In
the final apparatus, parallel bars, we had to count a big fall from
Sato. He overarched on his peach half
to handstand, and overrotated his double pike dismount. Kashima was expected to get a good score but
he missed his straddle support after his Tippelt, losing 0.3 from start value.
However, Tsukahara was very solid here as well as on floor. He hit everything and stuck his double pike
dismount. His 9.637 score qualified him for the apparatus final, and put him at
first place in the men's all-around qualification.
After this session, we stood over
Romania, and, China was not in good shape, so they could not beat us. We kept first place until the last session
started, but the USA went to the top spot over us in the last session, and we
placed second.
Women's Team Qualification
(Monday, August 18, 2003)
We had missed the women's Olympic team competition twice before ('92 & '00), so we concentrated on being in the top 12 in this competition. France, Canada and Germany competed on Day 2, and Japan competed on Day 3. When France,
Canada and Germany competed, they each received over 142.0 as a team. So, we needed a total score of at least142.000 to be ahead of them and within the top 12.
We started very well on vault, like our
men's team. Maika Mizutori and Ayaka
Sahara had very good landings, and scored very well. Manami Ishizaka got the highest score for the team with Yurchenko
with one and a half twist. Kyoko Oshima and Miho Takenaka performed the same
vault as Ishizaka, but had a deduction; Oshima for the landing (a big step
backward) and Takenaka for bent knees before the landing.
On uneven bars, Oshima fell on her
Tkachev, but the others hit their routines, including Mizotuchi's 9.100, the
highest score for Japan of the day. We did not have to count Oshima's fall, so
we could keep a high team total.
On beam, we had also a fall, this time
from Ishizaka. She missed her Onodi,
but her score was not less than 8.0.
However, Takenaka, who performed after Ishizaka, was very tight and
missed some connections, but had no fall. However, due to her low start value,
she scored less than Ishizaka. However, we still did not have a score less than 8.0 at that moment. To score
more than 142.000 in total, we would need an 8.875 average in the final event.
The final event, floor, was our best
event. We hit the first three
routines. Oshima did not reach 9.000
(8.987), but her score was the highest one in this event for us. We had still two gymnasts to go at that
moment. The forth competitor was
Ishizaka, the champion of the last Nationals and NHK cup of this year. However, she missed her second pass
(whip-whip to two and a half twist, with big step forward) and went out of
bounds. Her 8.675 was not enough for us to make142.000. Our last competitor,
Takenaka, however, missed her first pass (full-in) and scored 7.800. As a
result, our total score was 141.948, missing 142.000 by only 0.052 and only
0.210 to catch up with Germany. We placed 8th after this session.
There were four sessions to go. We needed to be at least ahead of DPR Korea,
Bulgaria and Great Britain, but DPR Korea and Great Britain did a very
good job and Great Britain placed 9th finallz. DPR Korea was very strong
on vault and uneven bars, kicked Germany out of top 12, and placed 12th,
the last spot for the Olympic team competition. We were also pushed down
to 14th place, our worst result in recent years. Even though our result
was worse than we expected, our gymnasts did their best as a team. No
less than 8.000 was counted into the team total. This was as much
as they could do at that time.
Japanese Women's Team, cheering men's team in the qualification
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