In the year before Olympics we always watch out for the rising stars of the younger generation. Indeed, this time we got an new NHK queen, first year senior Aiko Sugihara.
Sugihara was third after All Japan Individual Championships. So, before the competition started, the press focused mostly on the battle between Asuka Teramoto and Yuki Uchiyama. While these two made major mistakes, Sugihara managed to pull off clean performances on all four apparatuses. It was especially important to do so on beam where three of the top six women fell. That helped her grab her first ever senior major title in Japan. She won the competition with 113.975 and was the only woman to score above 14 on every event.
Following her were Natsumi Sasada and Asuka Teramoto with 112.65 and 112.35 respectively.
Sugihara showed aggressive performances especially on bars and floor. She showed speed on swing and accuracy on the handstand. so even if she drop some difficulty to ensure the consistency, her good execution score made up for it. On floor she tumbled high with neat form even on triple twist dismount. She also completed her Gogean leap and Memmel turn well enough. This routine gave her a huge 14.35 with 5.6D. On vault she did a good Yurchenko 1.5 with beautiful straight position. On beam she was hesitant on some combinations but didn’t have big wobbles. She had a messy landing on the triple twist dismount at the end but that didn’t cost her too much.
Asuka Teramoto, new Japanese champion, is in good shape and was aiming for another NHK trophy but the emotions were too overwhelming. She touched the beam with her hand on the switch leap 1/2, sat down the double pike dismount and went out of bounds on floor. She will be pleased with her 14.9 for her Rudi vault, which helped her stay on the podium. She hoped to do the Rudi, one of the hardest vault, at world championships again to help team Japan finish in top 8 to qualify to Rio Olympics because vault has been their Achillies tendon for a long time.
Yuki Uchiyama, silver medalist behind Teramoto last month, was also a contender here but had an uncharacteristic performance on bars where she lost handstand on pike circle 1/1 and fell hard on the Komova II. Failure on best event surely affected her a lot. She couldn’t get over it and fell on her switch ring on beam again later, making her drop to 5th position at the end, just narrowly catching the 5th spot for worlds.
Natsumi Sasada, who had a sore wrist after All Japan individual champ and had to reduce training, felt a bit less confident before the competition but managed to go through it without major mistakes. That helped her climb from 4th to silver medal position at the end.
Sakura Yumoto, 6th place finishing last month, grabbed her chance with a hit planned 6.4 D beam routine. She finished 4th and got the opportunity to make her debut at world championships at age 19
Sae Miyakawa again fell off bars on pike Jaeger but did well on the other three events, especially her vault. She did a sky high Rudi with great distance and power. and this gave her a massive 15.05. On floor she had some problems like low landing on full twisting double layout and, as usual, she was a bit low on double twisting double tuck dismount which may cause her trouble when competing on less bouncy floor. She finished 6th today, just a step from making worlds team though NHK Cup.
Koko Tsurumi, six time Japanese champion, came back strong last month from a broken Achillies tendon on left ankle; she was expected to finish in top 5 if nothing went wrong. Unfortunately she injured her right ankle on floor and had to withdraw from the competition at the end. During the third rotation, she had competed wobbly on beam (where she had fallen twice in All Japan individual championships last month). She then landed the double pike dismount with many steps backward trying not to sit it down. This seemed to have caused much pressure on her ankle. Before rotation 4 started, gymnasts were doing warm up on floor. Not until the crowd made some noise did I found out Tsurumi got injured. She was huddling upon the floor, covering her eyes withhands and couldn’t help sobbing. Coaches soon carried her off the podium and took her to hospital. She’s diagnosed with broken Achillies tendon on the right ankle and is scheduled to have a surgery on May 18th. Considering the multiple severe injuries she has suffered this quad and the fact that she is not likely to recover for Rio Olympics in time, it’s very possible that she will announce the retirement soon.
Top 5 finishing women Sugihara, Sasada, Teramoto, Yumoto and Uchiyama won their tickets to Glasgow Worlds and Asian Games which will be held in Hiroshima from July 31st to Aug. 2nd. The women in the run for the last spot are the ones finished in top 12 AA today including Sae Miyakawa, Yu Minobe, Mai Murakami, Wakana Inoue, Minami Honda and Yurika Yumoto. (11th place finisher Hitomi Hatakeda is ineligible this year) .
**Article: Peggy Peng **
Photo cover: source
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