Chihiro Ichikawa wins her first big title over the Olympians.

The gymnasts in the first group of the women’s all-round final, ranked first to sixth in the qualification, were the two Olympians, Manami Ishizaka and Kyoko Oshima, and the contenders for the alternate position for the Olympics at the NHK Cup, Miki Uemura, Ayaka Sahara, and Chihiro Ichikawa. Shoko Ono joined the group as the only junior gymnast.

ROTATION 1
(Group 1…VT, Group 2…UB, Group 3…BB, Group 4…FX)

Uemura aggressively tried a double twisting Yurchenko again as well as in the qualification, but missed, putting her hands down. She had not performed even a full twisting Yurchenko or one and a half twisting Yurchenko in the previous meets (at NHK Cup this year, she performed roundoff half-on front handspring piked front). Ishizaka was strong on this event as usual and performed a one and a half twisting Yurchenko. Her landing was very clean and she scored 9.225. Oshima did not perform her one and a half twisting Yurchenko but only did a full twisting Yurchenko. She scored only 8.675. Ichikawa and Ono performed Yurchenko-full and scored 8.800 and 8.650 respectively. Sahara performed a front handspring piked barani out and beautifully opened to a layout position before landing to score 8.850. In the second group, Mayu Kuroda was strong on uneven bars; she performed a free hip circle with a half turn to el-grip, el-grip giant, Ono turn, Jaeger. She scored 9.375 and took the lead.

ROTATION 2
(Group 1…UB, Group 2…BB, Group 3…FX, Group 4…VT)

Ishizaka performed two big releases; el-grip giant with half turn to Tkachev and Gienger. Her giant-full to full-in dismount was very smooth and she scored 9.250 to keep the lead. Uemura was stronger than Ishizaka with SV 10; Stalder with one and a half twist to Jaeger; giant full, overshoot to handstand on low bar, full twisting Stalder, sole circle with release to high bar. Her execution was very smooth and scored 9.300. Sahara and Ichikawa did not perform a high level of giant series as Uemura or Ishizaka did, but they were very powerful; Sahara was very solid on handstands and showed big swings. Ishikawa improved her routine from that of the NHK Cup, and performed two releases, Tkachev and Jaeger. She practiced layout full-in dismount but in the competition she changed to a tucked full-in dismount. Oshima was expected to earn a big score, but she sat down on her piked double back dismount. Ono also missed; she fell surprisingly on a very simple element, kip to cast handstand. She had another break in a giant series. Kuroda did not fall on beam but had some small balance checks and did not score near 9.000.

ROTATION 3
(Group 1…BB, Group 2…FX, Group 3…VT, Group 4…UB)

Uemura was very solid on this event, too; Punch front, ff, layout stepout was the solidest among the gymnasts who performed the same combination. She had a little wobble on her front aerial, but she scored 9.125. However, Ishizaka had uncharacteristic breaks in this final; she apparently got nervous in the first combination and could not connect the skills after her punch front. Then she broke her rhythm and fell twice in Shushunova with 1 3/4 and tucked back somi. Her score was 7.600, which was the lowest score she had received in years. Ichikawa and Sahara were again solid on this event; Ichikawa performed very strong single elements such as piked front somi mount, Popa jump, punch piked front. Sahara did not perform any front somersault, but she was very strong on her roundoff to layout back somersault mount, ff to two consecutive layout stepouts. She stuck her characteristic triple twist. Oshima performed good acrobat combinations but she could not do one arm ff after front aerial to ff. Her SV was not as she expected and her score was 8.800. On floor, Kuroda had to wait for nearly ten minutes but was very stable. She performed double pike, triple twist, and two and a half twist.

After this rotation, Uemura was first and Sahara and Ichikawa were second and third, respectively. Ishizaka and Oshima were still in the medal contention by a small margin.

ROTATION 4
(Group 1…FX, Group 2…VT, Group 3…UB, Group 4…BB)

On vault, Kuroda was weak and scored only 8.175 for her piked Luconi. That score kept her out of medal contention. In contrast, a senior student, Satomi Yamamoto, climbed into medal position with a strong front handspring piked barani out. In Group 1, on floor, the dramatic story was about to start. Before Uemura performed, the runner-ups, Ichikawa and Sahara, performed on floor. Sahara was the leadoff in this rotation. She almost went out of bounds in her piked full-in and layout front full. She did not make any big mistakes but scored only 8.625. Ichikawa performed next to Sahara, and showed her strong concentration. She performed double layout back somersault to punch tucked front in the qualification but changed this combination to Arabian double front. In contrast, she upgraded her second pass to two and a half twist to punch layout front. She was very solid in each skill and powerful. She scored 8.950 to pass Sahara. Ishizaka performed very solidly as usual on floor. Each landing was very clean and she did not break at all: tucked full-in, piked double back, two and a half twist to punch tucked front, triple twist. She scored 9.100, the best score for this event. Then Uemura’s order came. She was absolutely and apparently nervous. Her landings on each acrobat pass were nightmares. She went out of bounds in her last pass, a double back somi. She scored only 7.850 to place only sixth. The last performer, Oshima did not perform her double twisting layout front to punch tucked front full, but she was better than in the qualification. She scored 9.000 for third, and to tie Ishizaka..

Finally, Ichikawa won her first national championships and Sahara was second. The two Olympians, Ishizaka and Oshima, tied for third. The medallists were truly strong in this final, but actually the junior gymnasts were very strong, and will be seniors next year. We’ll be able to see a very exciting meet again next year!

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