69th All Japan Gymnastics Individual Championships will be held from Apr. 24th to 26th. Kohei Uchimura and Natsumi Sasada aim for eighth straight and third straight title respectively.
On women’s field, Sasada has changed the construction of routines to get higher execution scores. Her main rival will still be Asuka Teramoto, who had revealed several videos of upgrades like double layout on floor and double twisting double tuck off bars on Instagram.
The other contenders we should keep an eye on are new senior Sae Miyakawa, who got a total of over 54.0 counting three falls at WOGA Classic this year, and showed high potential in all-around competition situation. Her main rival will be herself, the consistency. Another medal contender for me is Yuki Uchiyama, who’s expected to shine last year but suffered from leg injuries after Jesolo Trophy. Also it will be interesting to see if Koko Tsurumi can be competitive at all-around again.
There are some changes regarding the rules of selection this year. First, there is a trial for male specialists. Their scores will be ranked along with other all-arounders and top 24 on each event will qualify to All Japan Gymnastics Event Championships which will be held on June 20th to 21st. Secondly, they will use domestic rules in the women’s competition to encourage more difficult routines. For example, routines with C elements (or below) dismount get 0.1 minus while the ones with D elements (or above) dismount get 0.1 bonus. Also, routines with credited CV get another 0.1/0.3 bonus. This rule will also be used at the other major domestic competitions such as NHK Cup, All Japan Event championships and All Japan Team Championships etc.
Uchimura revealed his plan on raising his difficulty score for this competition. He will show some upgrades on vault, floor and high bar, aiming for a 39.1 D score in total. He considers that the all-around competition in Japan as at the World level is higher and higher so just maintaining his difficulty would not be enough to keep himself in top position.
World all-around bronze medalist, Yusuke Tanaka, who trains in the same club with Kohei, thought it would be great if his D score could reach 38 points this year. Ryohei Kato, world all-around silver medalist in 2013 but suffered from two per country rule last year, said on the twitter that he’s in good shape and was hoping to break 91 mark this weekend.
Top 33 male players and top 24 female players in the total scores of qualification and final qualify to NHK Cup. While top 3 men on each event qualify to NHK Cup as well. For men, the result of this competition will also be decided by the total scores in both qualification and final while for women only the score from the final will count.
Schedule
Apr. 24th Day 1
MAG AA qualification
sub 1 12:10~15:15
sub 2 17:10~20:05
Apr. 25th Day 2
WAG AA qualification
sub 1 10:30~12:35
sub 2 14:35~16:50
sub 3 18:20~20:00
MAG All Japan Event Championships Trial
FX, PH, SR 11:10~12:50
VT, PB, HB 13:00~14:40
Apr. 26th Day 3
MAG AA Final 13:10~15:40
WAG AA Final 13:10~14:50
Broadcast Schedule
Apr. 26th, 13:55~16:00 on NHK総合
Article: Peggy Peng
Photo: Nadia Boyce
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