DATE : April 30-May 1, 2005
PLACE : Yoyogi Gymnasium #1

The rhythmic gymnastics competition was not only for qualification for the world championships but also for the World Games in Germany and Universiade in Turkey. It was held in Yoyogi Gymnasium #1. The gymnasts competed for spots over the two-day competition.

Even though she made mistakes on the first day on rope and clubs, Yukari Murata took first place in all three competitions. As the only Olympian at Athens last year, she had been thinking of retiring from gymnastics, but now she has a strong hope to be the strongest gymnast in the world. Ai Yokochi placed first after Day 1 over Murata, but she missed on clubs and dropped to second. Yachiyo Nakamura and Mai Hidaka were third and fourth respectively, and took the rest of spots for the world championships. Hidaka is the only high school gymnast among these four gymnasts.

There was a change in the Code of Points, and the gymnasts tried hard to fulfill the requirements of the new code. There were many obvious mistakes and lack of proficiency in execution among the younger gymnasts. Execution was a more important part of the score under the new code than under the old one.

The four gymnasts of the world championships squad will be highly evaluated for artistic value under the new code. Their performances included a variety of movements and speedy apparatus technique. On the difficulties, however, they have a lot of room to improve. Even these four made some mistakes in execution. Those mistakes will cost them more than under the current code, so they really need to be careful about avoiding mistakes. 

Squad Information

World Championships
-Individual-
Yukari Murata, Ai Yokochi, Yachiyo Nakamura, Mai Hidaka
-Group-
Selection Team

Universiade
-Individual-
Yukari Murata, Yoshie Hayashi
-Group-
Tokyo Women's College of Physical Education

World Games
Yukari Murata