No, it wouldn't! That tournament is rigged, I tell you! Rigged! Possibly paid for by Nihon Unisys, those goddamn gangsters! *I took the WD draw really well, I think*
So, Okuhara also abstains from the National Championships, which means Aya Ohori can basically luck her way to the final. Kawakami, Yamaguchi and Sato are all in the other side of the draw.
Not as though it helps much if you cannot read Japanese, but today's results of the WS part of the All Japan Championships are out at http://www.badminton-a.com/all71japan/20171203ws.htm. The other main seeds, i.e., Yamaguchi, Sato, Ohori are all through to the next round, and there do not seem to be any upsets, full stop.
@Cunning Linguist Looking at the WS draw, NTT-East seem to be suffering from the same predicament as the Saishunkan WD. Poor things.
Just now quickly glanced at the content of Okuhara's interview. She is still not 100%, and wants to make sure that she is in the best possible condition for the Tokyo Olympics (which is looking fairly far ahead...). There was no specific mention of the super series finals, but the general understanding seems to be that she will NOT be fit to play. As for a place on National Team A in 2018: Although Okuhara has withdrawn from the All Japan Championships (for the second time in a row, incidentally), it is practically guaranteed that the NBA will recommend that she be given one of the four slots.
The results of the first round of the MD section are now out at http://www.badminton-a.com/all71japan/20171203md.htm. Again, it is all in Japanese and won't make much sense, but the top four seeds are all through to the second round. What surprised me here is that Tsuneyama Kanta and Shimono Hashiru (Tonami) have paired up and got through R2! Have they featured anywhere together before? The WD results are also available at http://www.badminton-a.com/all71japan/20171203wd.htm. With a score of 21-17, 17-21, 24-22, Fukuman/Yonao (Yonex) seemed to have struggled against Ono/Imai (Saishunkan), but the other top three seeds won comfortably.
According to Daily Sports and Sponichi Annex, in the MS of the All Japan Championships, Momota needed to go the full three games to beat Inokuma Shintaro (Nihon University). He lost the first game with a score of 15-21; a series of errors being attributed to his nervousness. In his post-match interview, Momota's reflected that his strong desire not to lose resulted in a "negative" playing style in G1. When in G2 he was down 4-8, it dawned on him that unless he play more aggressively, he might actually lose the match...and this is where the tables turned. The final score was 15-21, 21-14, 21-13, and Momota will meet Kozai Kazuteru in R2. The results for the MS tournament have been published at http://www.badspi.jp/201711281200/, with no major upsets here, either. Matches of interest tomorrow include, Igarashi v. Naraoka, Sakai v. Yamazawa, Takeshita v. Shimono, and Tsuneyama v. Koga.
Badminton Spirit with special corner for All Japan Championships here : http://www.badspi.jp/congress/japansogo/ Some interviews with previous winners (2016) : http://www.badspi.jp/201711272115/
Seems like she will meet MM and then Sayaka Takahashi at QF and SF , but Aya should be able to win both
The All Japan Championships schedule for November 30 has been uploaded at http://www.badminton-a.com/all71japan/20171130tt.pdf. Categories are mixed up this time around, with Court 1 being reserved in the morning for what are deemed the most attention-grabbing matches. These are: 10:00~ (WS) Yamaguchi Akane (Saishunkan) v. Hoshi Chisato (Nihon Unisys), followed by (MS) Momota Kento (NTT-East) v. Kozai Kazuteru (Ryukoku University employee), followed by (WD) Takahashi/Matsutomo (Nihon Unisys) v. Imabeppu/Doi (Yonex).
As @Maurice MJC has shown above, a youtube channel supported by Smash and Net.TV is showing snippets of some of the AJC action at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF0hDrh9A45LVobyT2ZkXOg. Momota's post-match interview is recorded here, and if you look at 4:57 onwards, you can catch 10 seconds or so of action as played in G3.
Hadn't considered that. A significant amount of points to maintain world ranking and subsequent seeding.
Same way RI and Ahmad/Natsir did last year. But it will be very sad as Dubai was a place of success for her. I thought she'd be able to recover in time for Dubai.
That shouldn't be allowed, though. I can understand it for one tournament, but either you're fit to play, or you're not. You can easily find that out during practice. Meanwhile at the national championships, Shida/Matsuyama have beaten their seniors Fukushima/Hirota in straight games. I smell something fishy. Edit: or Google translator is letting me down, possible as well.
