With a big margin over the others, Ishizaka and Oshima started their final performances to make the Olympic team. All they needed was just to have more confidence and less hesitation. The runner-up group had to wait for mistakes by Oshima and Ishizaka in order to catch up with them. Actually mistakes by Oshima and Ishizaka would be very hard to imagine...

Ishizaka and Oshima did one and a half twisting Yurchenko on vault. Their landings were very clean but both of them showed slightly bent knees. Ishizaka showed good height and speed, though.

On uneven bars, Ishizaka didn't perform better than yesterday, with a little more arched body line during her el grip giant sequence. However, she stuck her full-in dismount to score more than 9. Oshima performed with good rhythm throughout her routine, with well-executed full twisting el-grip giant to piked Jaeger.

On beam, the two girls seemed tight. Even though both of them concentrated on doing their best, not thinking of the Olympics, they were apparently nervous. Ishizaka could not perform some sequences which she had planned to get bonus points with. She immediately changed her routine to fulfil the special requirements, but she had already broken her rhythm. Oshima had one break in her routine, when she did a front aerial to ff to layout stepout back sommie (she paused after the front aerial). However, she looked very confident on her backward acrobat elements. If she hits her routine, she will get a high score with a high SV.

On floor, Oshima missed her triple turn, a new element for her, and had a big step backward after her double twisting layout front to punch full twisting tucked front. She did double turn with free leg horizontal with better execution. Due to her upgraded routine, her SV is 9.9 if she hits it.

Ishizaka performed full of confidence in her acrobat series, including full-in mount and triple twist dismount. She had also good dance elements, but she missed her triple turn on both days. She also had 9.9 SV, so she will need to brush up each element to gain a higher score.

Finally, they kept their position and entered as the top 2 to qualify for the Olympic team. The runner-up group, Mizoguci, Sahara and Uemura missed on some events and could not catch up with the top 2. Even though they had small mistakes, they didn't show any major breaks in the secondary trials and in the NHK Cup. They must have practiced very hard to perform at the Olympics... actually their routines were worthy of the Olympics. They now are to be Olympians and absolutely deserve this honor.. Wish them good luck at the Olympics!

SELECTION PROCEDURE and Olympic Roster for Women

Due to the result of the team final at Anaheim Worlds, the number of gymnasts who will go to the Olympics is only two. TOP 2 gymnasts after the four days of trials automatically qualified for the Olympics.

Manami Ishizaka
Kyoko Oshima

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