Men's Competition
The NHK Cup is the most prestigious gymnastics competition held in Japan.There were 18 men and 18 women competing; three events for men and threeevents for women ran simultaneously.   To make it a little easier to follow, the complete routines of the top 15 men and women were displayed in the program, with SV.  (In Japanese, of course!)  but still, it makes coverage of a meet much easier.

The purpose of the first day's competition was to position the competitors for the second day.   On the first day, Yoneda took advantage of mistakes by others to claim the NHK Cup.  Tomita, Tsukahara, Mizutori, Kashima, Sano and Saito took the top 7 positions...

Would you trust me if I told you that Tomita got 9.7 on rings?  You would probably be thinking,  "now wait a minute.... that score is good enough to get Tomita into event finals in the Olympics!  Is Tomita really that good on rings?"

That is why I will describe some of the more spectacular stunts done on the first day of competition.  Perhaps that will give you a better sense of the quality of the competition.

On floor exercise, Tsukahara's laid out double back with double twist was by far the most spectacular single stunt, but Yoneda did the same stunt. Nakano, who threw the most spectacular routines on every event he participated in, did a round off-back with one and a half twist- to tucked one and a half sommie.  Suzuki performed a back with one and a half twist to immediate forward roll....(Thomas).

Of course Kashima won side horse.  His routine may not be that spectacular, but he extends more than any other Japanese.... His doubles are truly beautiful to watch.

On rings the most spectacular stunts were Nakano's piked Guzoghy to dislocate to (unfortunately overturned) triple back.  Adachi pressed out of a cross to support and immediate piked forward roll in support to hang to back uprise to handstand.  Saito performed a perfect piked barany out dismount.

On parallel bars, Adachi did a spectacular double back to arm support from armed support... (Morisue from arm support).  Sano did a lovely piked Morisue.   Sato and Nakazato did the stock parallel bar routine perfectly... peach to handstand with half twist, peach to handstand, tucked double back from giant swing to arm support.  Unlike the higher placed competitors, these two gymnasts hit their peach baskets to handstand.  Nakano was not cut from the same cloth.... What can one say about a Tippelt that lands NEAR A HANDSTAND?    I am not talking about a straight legged giant swing to straddle "L" and stiff stiff press!  I am talking about a Tippelt which swings to the handstand with very little strength involved! 

And on horizontal bar, many gymnasts did Kohlman (Kovacs with full twist), but only Nakano completed the twist before regrasp.  He also threw a clean Kovacs; not as clean as Kashima, who made no mistakes at all, and did an effortless el-grip Endo to immediate hop to handstand.   Mizutori did a lovely straight body Kovacs as well as a Kohlman.  Nakase did a lovely inside stalder with half twist to an inside Endo.  Nakamura had a very
impressive stoop in and shoot with full twist to handstand, followed immediately by a straddled Jaeger. (front sommie to regrasp.)   He also did a laid out front sommie with full twist to regrasp....

Women's Competition
For the very small number of the spots for the Olympics (only two gymnasts going to be selected), the competition was very heated up by the top level of gymnasts. However, the top 2 gymnast in the secondary trilas, Ishizaka and Oshima, kept their advantage for the Olympics by the routines without any major breaks. With small mistakes on beam and floor, Ishizaka showed her potential to the crowd. She made a solid routine on uneven bars with el-grip giant sequence and a gorgeous LAYOUT Ginger.

Oshima seemed to be in better shape than Ishizaka. She had a new element, triple turn on floor and it was perfectly done. She had a big wobble on beam after full twisting tucked jump. Nevertheless, she looked very confident to the Olympics.

Sahara, Mizoguchi, Uemura, who made the runnerup group, were very concentrated to not show any falls. Sahara and Uemura survived on beam even though they made a big balance check respectively. They will be certainly big threaten elements for Ishizaka and Oshima.

As for the stuents, Ishikawa did layout double backt to punch front on floor. Ichikawa 's routines on every event were the most solid in the day.


Looking forward to the second day of the meet, today!

NEXT>>