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The Major Competitions in 2005 |
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Result
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2005 Natinal Championships Day
2
Women's All-Around Final
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by
T. Fujii & K. Endo
(web published on October 20, 2005) |
DATE: October 15, 2005
PLACE:Amagasaki Memorial Park Gymnasium
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| Uemura wins her first all-around championship. |
Contention for the national all-around champion was as thrilling as usual,
but the reason for the thrills was different; almost every gymnast in the
first and second group who had a chance to win made at least one big
mistake and the meet turned into a "survival game."
Manami Ishizaka, the winner of the NHK Cup this year and the two-time
national champion, had a bad day; she fell on a ring jump and had a very
big wobble on beam. On floor, she lost her balance after her double turn
and could not connect to a following element, and finally she went out of
bounds after her triple twist dismount. She ended up fifth. Like
Ishizaka, a lot of big names went down to lower ranks because of
uncharacteristic mistakes; Kyoko Oshima fell on her Jaeger on uneven bars
after losing her control on her Ono turn. Mayu Kuroda fell on her punch
front and Ayaka Sahara fell on her layout stepout on beam. The reigning
national champion, Chihiro Ichikawa, made big mistakes on beam and floor.
It was a pity to see those mistakes from many gymnasts at this time, when
the East Asian Games and the world championships are coming soon.
In this bad atmosphere, two gymnasts from Asahi Seimei GC performed good
routines.
Sakiko Okabe, the junior national champion this year, had the best vault
with one and a half twisting Yurchenko and a beautiful choreography on
floor to the same music which a former world champion, Shannon Miller, had
used from 1992 to 1994. Okabe placed second, the highest rank for her at
nationals.
Miki Uemura, two-time alternate in the 2003 world championships and the
2004 Olympics, had her day. She upgraded her vault to roundoff to half
twist to front handspring piked barani (Podkopaeva) and got a good score
(she did double twisting Yurchenko in May, though). She hit her routine
on uneven bars with 10 SV including one and a half twisting Stalder to
Jaeger, and full twisting el-grip giant, el-grip giant with a half turn,
overshoot to handstand on low bar, full-twisting Stalder, underswing shoot
to high bar. On beam, in which she made the finals at the Universiade, she
had a big balance check on her Popa jump, but maintained her steadiness
after it. Starting at the top after the third rotation, she came to
floor, on which she had missed in last year's nationals and lost the
title. and she had missed her double pike dismount even in prelims this
year.
Her performance was very tight but she saved each landing somehow. Before
her dismount, not only her teammates at Asahi Seimei GC but also the other
gymnasts in the same group yelled "Go, Miki! Come on, Miki!". It seemed
that many people hoped she would win and beat the pressure, and she
finally did it! She did not make a big mistake, and became the all-around
national champion of this year.
 *The other point to watch was He Xuemei, '92 Olympian of China. She had
lived and been a coach in Japan for many years and had married a Japanese.
She had won the non-student championships and had qualified for these
national championships. The 28-year-old woman showed her power, and had
breath-taking performances. She hit all four events. Her routines were as
follows; Yurchenko-full on vault. Giant-half to el-grip to Jaeger,
giant-full to Tkachev and double pike dismount (she did full-in dismount
in warm-up!) on uneven bars. Roundoff to layout back somi, side somi,
and tucked double dismount on beam. Double pike mount, one and a half
twist to piked front, and double twist dismount on floor. She placed tenth overall!!
She absolutely amazed the crowd and demonstrated what real gymnastics was to
the young gymnasts. To the long-time gymnastics fans, her routines were something
they had missed for years
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