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The Major Competitions in 2005 |
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Results
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2005 NHK Cup (Men)
(+The Final Trials for the World Championships & the East Asian Games)
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by M. Yuasa and T. Fujii
(web published on July 13, 2005) |
DATE: July 8-9, 2005
PLACE:Sundome Fukui
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| Mizutori wins NHK Cup and qualifies for both the worlds and the East Asian Games. |
Two gymnasts from the gold-medal-winning team at Athens were missing:
Nakano and Tsukahara, both of whom withdrew from the previous secondary
trials and could not proceed to the NHK cup. The two day competition
had a lot of new challenges, because the code had changed: the value of
the bonus points
had increased from 1.2 to 1.6. This meant that the gymnasts needed to
change their routines to get an additional 0.4 bonus points. However,
that brought a dramatic
turn to the competition.
The qualification procedures for the world championships and the East
Asian Games
are kind of complicated; as for the worlds, the point addition system was
introduced.
First of all, the top two gymnasts in the all-around in the secondary
trials
and the NHK Cup (both scores would be totaled) would be automatically
selected.
The other four spots would be for the specialists. The top gymnast on each
apparatus
on each day of both the secondary trials and the NHK Cup would get 3
points. The
second best gymnasts would get 2 points, and the third would get 1,
respectively.
If a gymnast won an apparatus on each of the four days,
he would get 12 points (3pts x 4days = 12pts) and in this case he also
would be
selected automatically. The rest of the spots would be given according to
the
ranking of the total points.
The gymnasts who qualified for the world championships would not be
selected for the East Asian Games; and the top 6 gymnasts in the
all-around at the (totaled) secondary trials and the NHK Cup, except for
the qualifiers for the world championships, would be automatically
selected for the East Asian Games.
Hisashi Mizutori, one of the gold medal winning team members at Athens,
was very stable
throughout the competition, and scored more than 9.0 on each event both
days.
His highlight was horizontal bar, as usual: (layout Kovacs; Kolman;
Kovacs; Rivalko
to full twisting el-grip giant), but he was not a specialist at all but a
true
all-around gymnast. He was a strong tumbler on floor, including two passes
with
0.5 bonus and two and a half twisting back somersault to tucked front somi.
On pommel horse, he had a flawless combination; 360 degree kehre wende,
Marinichi,
E-combined sequence of Russian and flop, Magyar travel, Sivado travel, and
E-flop.
On rings, on which he performed in the team finals at Athens, he performed
a great sequence of Honma cross, Bhavsar, Pineda, pull up to Maltese, and
dismounted with
layout full-in. He was strong on vault, performing Driggs with a great
distance.
He scored 9.600 on the second day and that was the best score of the day
on that
event. On parallel bars, He had a "normal" sequence of peach, peach-half,
Belle
and upgraded the dismount from tucked double back to piked double back;
this gave
him another 0.1 bonus. On the second day, he beat Tomita after the first
rotation, and kept his lead until the fifth rotation. On the last
rotation, he was under very big pressure to win his first big title, but
he hit his routine and stuck his double twisting double layout dismount.
He finally took the first NHK Cup as his first national all-around victory.
The two-time national champion and the bronze medalist on horizontal bar
at Athens, Isao Yoneda, had a shoulder injury; he had to reduce the
elements
of his routines on every event except floor and high bar (he did only
scissors
on pommel horse, for example). Both of the events would give him a big chance to
qualify for the world championships. He upgraded his high bar routine,
including Kolman, and hit his routine on the first day and got first place
on that event for the day. He additionally topped on floor on the second
day,
and got enough points to qualify for the world championships.
The reigning national champion, Hiroyuki Tomita, had a disappointing meet
not only for the crowd but also for himself. He missed the combinations
that
could have given him 0.5 bonus on floor both days. He also fell on pommel
horse both days (on his E-flop on the first day, and on the E-combined
flop/Russian sequences on the second day). Another fall was on horizontal
bar on the second day (he fell on his Kolman) and on vault (he missed his
Driggs). His best
event was rings, which he won both days. He performed back uprise to
planche,
back roll to Maltese, Nakayama, pull up to Maltese, and Azarian. He stuck
his
swing to handstand and double layout dismount. In spite of the low total
scores
both days, his high scores in the secondary trials pushed him up to
the second place in the NHK Cup, and he was selected as an all-around
competitor for the world championships.
The reigning world champion, not only for pommel horse but also horizontal
bar,
Takehiro Kashima, topped on pommel horse all four days and made the world
championships team. He was edged by Tomita in the all-around total, and he
lost his spot as an all-arounder by only 0.025. However, he certainly
became better
than last year on all events. He dismounted with tucked full-in on floor
(although he put his hands down on the second day). On pommel horse, his
routine was
unbeatable; Spindle in flare circle in cross face; Magyar travel,
E-combined
sequence of Russian/Flop; 360 degree kehre wende, E-flop, Stokli A to
handstand
with 3/3 travel dismount. On horizontal bar, he added a new element,
Kolman.
This made his routine more gorgeous and he certainly hit his routine even
with this challenge. His execution even in this SE skill was still
beautiful.
This is really worth seeing!!
The rest of spots for the worlds went to the specialists. Tatsuya Yamada,
the
two-time world championships member, was second best to Tomita on rings.
He had a very strong performance; back uprise to Maltese, pull up to
planche,
back roll to Maltese, Nakayama and Azarian. He also upgraded his
dismount to layout full-in. Since he missed a medal at Anaheim Worlds in
2003
by a small margin, he was expected to have his revenge at this worlds.
Ryoichi Sekiguchi topped on vault performing two strong vaults of 9.9 SV.
He performed Driggs and front handspring double twisting layout front and
the averages of both vaults were the best on each day. (* Gymnasts who
wanted
to get high scores on vault needed to perform two different vaults. ) The
points on this event
helped him qualify for the worlds.
As for the East Asian Games qualification, the three members of the
Universiade squad made
the team; Ryosuke Baba placed fourth in the all-around at the NHK Cup and
was the
first qualifier for the East Asian Games. He was stable on parallel bars
both days, performing peach half mount, peach half, peach, piked belle;
piked Morisue; piked double back dismount. Shun Kuwabara was also stable on
parallel bars and did not make any big error throughout the competition.
He had a tricky release sequence on horizontal bar, Kovacs to hop giant
with
1 1/2 turn, and hit it on the first day, but missed it on the second day.
Kenya Kobayashi, an alternate at the Universiade, showed another type of
gymnastics;
he made use of his tiny body (similar to Maras of Greece), and had very
crisp movements
on each event. His circles on pommel horse and giant on horizontal bar
had a
very good speed which was not seen in many gymnasts.
Naoya Tabara, a member of 2003 Universiade, had some outstanding skills;
on floor, he revealed LAYOUT Lipinsky (two and a half twisting layout 1
3/4 forward
roll), an SE skill. (*Maybe he was the first gymnast who performed it in
the world!)
He had another sequence of 0.5 bonus points: a strong whipback to Thomas
roll.
He was strong again on rings; kip to Maltese, Azarian, Bhavsar, Nakayama;
double twisting
double layout dismount!(SE) He also tried a Roche on vault.
Yasuhiro Ogawa, a member of 2002 Worlds and 1998 and 2002 Asian Games, was
excellent
on his favorite event, parallel bars. He was the second on this event on
the
second day, performing a peach sequence to piked Belle. He did also the
best Roche of
the competition to score 9.450. He will be the most experienced among the
team, so
he is expected to lead the team well.
The final spot went to a Universiade gymnast, Hiroaki Kusu. He had a good
sequence
with peach full (SE) and got the best score on this event.
Since the Japanese team now is awaiting the meets as the Olympic champion,
they might have a different kind of pressure from past years. But they
should be confident, and they certainly have chances to win titles at the
world championships
and at the East Asian Games. Even though this year's world championships
will not have a team competition, the team will be still expected to be
strong in the all-around or apparatus finals and they will actually be
that strong. As for the East Asian Games, many new faces are expected to
show Japanese power, and to beat China and Korea. Let's look forward to
their effort!!
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