Uemura wins two apparatus events .

VAULT
Miki Uemura, who had done the highest SV (9.8) vault of the meet, a double twisting Yurchenko, in both qualification and all-round final, had failed to qualify into this final due to a mistake. The highest SV in the final was a one and a half twisting Yurchenko by Manami Ishizaka, Ayako Tanaka and Yuka Kawamura. The difficulty of the second vault was important for deciding the ranking of the gymnasts in the final. In general, most of the gymnasts in the vault final tended to be unstable on their second vault. Ishizaka was very confident on both vaults and took first place easily. She made a very clean landing on her one and a half twisting Yurchenko for her first vault, and stuck her roundoff, half-on, front handspring piked front. Her SVs were 9.7 for the first, and 9.5 for the second. The average of her SVs was the highest in the final, and she clearly deserved a victory for the best execution. Asami Kotani did not perform a Yurcheko-family vault, but did very big vaults: front handspring piked barani out (9.6) for the first, and Phelps (9.5) for the second. They were also difficult vaults, but her landing position on the second was very low, and so she could not pass Ishizaka. Kotani’s teammate, Kawamura hit her one and a half twisting Yurchenko but her vault was not as beautiful and big as the ones Ishizaka performed. She did only a front handspring tucked front for SV 9.2, but did not miss in her landing. She tied with Kotani and they placed second. Tanaka, the three-time champion on this event, did the same vaults as Ishizaka, but missed both vaults and finished eighth.

UNEVEN BARS
Japanese women needed to improve their routines on this event to score according to the 2001 Code of Points, and they upgraded their routines this year. Miki Uemura was the only gymnast who had a SV 10 and won this final; Stalder 1 1/2 to el-grip, el-grip jaeger; giant full inward, overshoot to handstand, Stalder full, underswing shoot; Arabian double front dismount. Her performance was totally controlled and did not break form at all during her routine. Mayu Kuroda, the 2002 co-champion on this event, was close to Uemura. Her Ono turn, an E skill, was perfectly executed, and she had a beautiful bodyline and a great toe-point throughout her routine. The variety of dismounts were also amazing; Giant full to tucked full-in (C+D) by Ishizaka, triple twisting flyaway by Ayaka Sahara (E, but missed), layout full-in by Chihiro Ichikawa (E, in warm-up only), and tucked double-double by Mei Kusuda (SE), who was the youngest gymnast in the championships at age 13. In this final, six of the eight gymnasts were current members or former members of Asahi Life Insurance Gymnastics. Their effort and basic strength on this event was truly outstanding and enhanced the competition.

BEAM
Even though the gymnasts had expected to have routines with a high SV, they had to execute the elements smoothly, without a pause in combination, and, of course, without falls to accomplish that SV. Because most of them did punch front, ff, layout stepout combinations, which gave them 0.3 bonus points, it was important to have solid landings on the punch front to connect the following elements. Uemura nailed the landing of the punch front and did not make any wobble in the combination. She was also stable on her front aerial to tucked back sommie, and cleanly landed on her two and a half twisting back somersault dismount. She won her second title in the finals. Oshima had well-balanced acrobatic and dance elements: punch front, ff, layout stepout, full twisting tucked jump, full twisting stretched jump, one-arm ff, switch leap, 3/4 Shushunova, front aerial and two and a half twisting back somersault dismount. Shoko Ono, one of the junior gymnasts in the finals, did good dance elements with perfect execution, which was her trademark. She was also solid on her punch front to tucked back sommie. In spite of low SV, Akiko Numata was the most elegant performer and amazed the crowd by a completely split arabesque and other flexibility movements.

FLOOR
The Code seemingly favored dance elements, and it tended to be rare to see powerful acrobatic passes. As well as beam, the gymnasts had to have both acrobatic and dance elements at a high level of difficulty to place high. Ishizaka was the best gymnast and executed both dance and acrobatic elements perfectly. She started with a solid tucked full-in and continued with a perfect combination of double turn to double twisting tucked jump. She had other well-executed elements: piked double back, triple turn, two and a half twisting layout back, 2/1 cat leap to 3/2 cat leap combination, and triple twist. Among many gymnasts who performed a triple twist, only Ishizaka used it as a dismount. She was the real winner of this event. Ono showed her talent in dance elements again: double turn to double twisting tucked jump, triple turn to double twisting stretched jump, 2/1 cat leap to 3/2 cat leap. She was the only gymnast who did a 2 1/2 twisting layout back to full twisting tucked front, which gave her 0.2 connection bonus. Chihiro Ichikawa was the most powerful tumbler, but she kept her layout double back to punch tucked front in reserve; however, she showed a very high arabian double front. She immediately did 2 1/2 twisting layout back to punch layout front. Although her SV was not as high as that of Ishizaka, her routine was the crowd favorite. Her style of gymnastics was like the ‘90s, and her music was the very same as that of Mari Kosuge in 1993. Many fans loved her routine!

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