DATE: November 10-12, 2006
PLACE:Yoyogi Gymnasium #1

Tsurumi tied for all-around title with Uemura

Women's Team Final

In the first subdivision, Kyoko Oshima and Ayaka Sahara, the world championship team members, showed good routines without big errors. Oshima had a balance check after most of her acrobatic elements on beam, but her floor routine was very steady. Her double turn with one leg above horizontal was the best of the entire competition. Sahara was excellent on her favorite event, beam, with a very difficult combination of ff to layout back sommie stepout to whip. Besides them, the highlight of this subdivision was double twisting Yurchenko from Mizuho Nagai. She was the only gymnast who did this skill in these nationals.

In the second subdivision, Mayu Kuroda, Japan's best gymnast at the last world championships, performed with her teammates. She looked more confident than she had looked previous to her great achievement. She probably needs more improvement on uneven bars, because she made a slow movement in her kip cast to handstand after her Ray (Stalder and counter movement to high bar), which she added this year. Her team, Lejik Sports, had very charming choreography on floor. One more interesting gymnast was Wa Setsubai (Japanese name for He Xuemei), a '92 Olympian who had competed for China. She made the Asian Championships team this year, but she missed a spot for the world championship team at the NHK Cup because of a lot of mistakes. At these national championships, she had a nightmare again; she missed on uneven bars and beam. However, she upgraded her floor routine with a back sommie with two and a half twist mount, one and a half twisting back sommie to punch front full in the second pass, and double pike dismount.

In the third subdivision, the former and the current national champions and the national team members came up. It was a pity that Manami Ishizaka made very big mistakes on beam and floor. She fell in her mount and sat dawn on her dismount on beam, and overrotated in two passes on floor. She qualified for the all-around final, but placed only 19th! Miki Uemura had also a fall on beam but stayed calm besides that event. Keiko Mukumoto, the alternate at the last world championships, showed great improvement on vault; her Yurchenko full was not a high level of difficulty, but she gained much more height than ever. The junior gymnasts who surely will be the power at the 2008 Olympics for Japan threatened those veterans. Mai Yamagishi was strong on every event, including a very clean Yurchenko with one and a half twist that was the best of the competition. Toko Tsurumi had the style of a Chinese gymnast; she had very beautiful and strong bodyline and was excellent on bars and beam. Surprisingly, Yamagishi tied for top qualifier for the all-around final with the current champion, Uemura.

In contention for the team final, Toda City Sports Center and Asahi Seimei Gymnastics Club were in a head to head competition. In the last rotation, there was a very dramatic and amazing story. Leading after the third rotation, Asahi Seimei G.C. had some falls on floor and was being beaten by Toda C.S.C. Unfortunately, during the performance of Yuka Nakajima, the CD of her music malfunctioned and she lost her rhythm completely and she finally missed her pass of back sommie with two and a half twist. The judge, however, allowed her to perform again in the last order. Before her repeated performance, Asahi Seimei was behind Toda. Nakajima needed to hit her routine in this difficult situation, but she did it!! Asahi finally beat Toda and recaptured the title that they had lost last year.

Women's All-Around Final

Since Ishizaka was in the fourth group because of her poor performances in the qualification, following the winners of the all around competition was a little difficult; we had to watch not only the first group but also the other groups to see who was going to win the all around final.

Ishizaka recovered from her disastrous performance in the qualification on floor and hit her routine. She easily picked up a good score. Yamagishi was also good on vault with a one and a half twisting Yurchenko. Since the other gymnasts in the first group did not have strong vaults, Yamagishi led after the first rotation. (Tsurumi's front handspring to piked barani out was very beautiful, though.)

In the second rotation, Oshima bent her knees on her piked Jaeger and Tsurumi hit the low bar with her legs and bent her knees on her layout double dismount on uneven bars. Uemura and Ishizaka hit their routines on uneven bars and vault, respectively. Kuroda showed her world-class level of routine on uneven bars. Yamagishi kept her steadiness on uneven bars and stuck her tucked full-in dismount to lead the competition.

In the third rotation, Yamagishi, the 15-year old junior high school gymnast, performed first on beam. She could not beat the pressure and fell on her mount. In contrast, Uemura hit her routine very well; she was almost falling after her layout stepout, but she made a good recovery on one leg with a big balance check. Kuroda cleanly hit her routine, but Oshima fell twice on her layout stepout mount and side sommie. Tsurumi had a balance check on her full turn with one leg above horizontal. Ishizaka was not very good on uneven bars; her Gienger was too close to regrasp, and she had a small pause after her kip cast handstand. After this rotation, Uemura led the contention over Kuroda, and Tsurumi followed them.

In the last rotation, Tsurumi went out of bounds on her arabian double mount. Kuroda had no mistake but her low mark from the A-panel put her behind Tsurumi. Ishizaka had a slight balance check on beam but scored well enough to be ahead of Kuroda. Uemura had the best performance ever on floor, including tucked full-in mount and double twisting layout full to punch front, one and a half twisting layout back sommie to punch front full, and piked double back dismount. She tied with Tsurumi for the top. The last performer was the top qualifier, Yamagishi. Her routine was not bad, but not good enough to catch up with Tsurumi and Uemura. Finally, Uemura and Tsurumi shared the national championship in the all-around. Uemura won her second consecutive title.

The result that the junior and the veteran won the title together brought a big hope to the Japanese team for the coming world championships. The women's squad at the last world championships, which consisted of mostly veterans, competed well with only a few breaks. If those veterans make up a team again with some of the new generation's gymnasts at the coming world championships, their power will multiply and it will not be difficult to qualify for the team competition of the Olympics.

Women's Apparatus Finals

It was disappointing that only three gymnasts performed two different vaults in the vault finals. The gymnasts were required to perform two vaults from different groups of skills, but five gymnasts repeated the same skill. They got penalties (2.0) in their final scores.

The top qualifier, Mizuho Nagai, repeated her skill, and she missed her first vault. She hit a clean double twisting Yurchenko in her second vault, though. Manami Ishizaka performed a roundoff half twist to front handspring tucked front (with a hop forward) and one and a half twisting Yurchenko with bent knees. Keiko Mukumoto performed a beautiful Yurchenko-full, but made a big step on her front handspring tucked front. The final performer, Yuki Iida showed a one and a half twisting Yurchenko and front handspring tucked front with two steps on her landing. Iida scored ahead of Ishizaka and Mukumoto, and she won her first national title. Even though not only the value but also the execution were not at a high level, it was good for Japan to see a new name in the first place.

To uneven bars, Mayu Kuroda brought her best performance ever in this year. Her movement after her Ray was smooth and she almost stuck her landing. She won this event with no doubt. Tsurumi's routine was obviously as good as Kuroda, but she had a reduction for her Jaeger (close to the bar). If Kuroda and Tsurumi make a team in the coming world championships, the team will be very strong on this event. Rie Tanaka performed a Comaneci somersault but fell.

On beam, many gymnasts fell or had some wobbles in the final. In contrast, Ayaka Sahara performed a very clean routine with ff, layout stepout, whip; roundoff layout back sommie; triple twist dismount. Kuroda hit her routine again with roundoff layout stepout mount; ff, layout stepout; side sommie; switch leap to back sommie; two and a half twisting dismount. Yamagishi finally went ahead of both Sahara and Kuroda with a steady performance. She upgraded her routine with an Onodi (D), and hit her routine. She performed layout stepout mount; front aerial to sheep jump; full turn with one leg above horizontal; switch leap to back sommie; two and a half twisting dismount. She got revenge for the all-around final in which she fell on this event!

On floor, Kyoko Oshima sat dawn on her back sommie with one and a half twist to punch front full. That gave the rest of the gymnasts a chance to win this event. Nakajima and Okabe, both from Asahi Seimei, hit clean routines. They performed very similar routines with two and a half twisting back sommie, double pike and one and a half twisting back sommie to punch front full. Momoko Ozawa from Toda topped them in the final; she opened her routine with very high tucked arabian double, two and a half twisting back sommie to punch front with a full, triple twist, and double pike. Her routine was the most exciting in the final. She won the floor title. Sahara, who previously announced her retirement after the Asian Games, had her last performance in Japan. She changed her first pass from piked full-in to tucked full-in, but her whip to triple twist was still awesome. She could not win a medal (fourth place), but her elegant performance was the crowd favorite in the final.