National Team A coach Nakanishi obviously felt the need to excuse the performance of TakaMatsu and Endo/Watanabe at the Syed Modi Championships. In his tournament report, the following reasons are given for their losses (https://www.badminton.or.jp/2018/sid/index.htm): TakaMatsu: A back injury sustained at the Fuzhou and Hong Kong Open flared up, and they were unable to continue the match. [Nakanishi does not go as far as to mention which of the two has sustained the injury.] Endo/Watanabe: The succession of matches played by Watanabe resulted in fatigue. He was unable get into condition prior to the match, and the pair were not able to play as they had hoped. Hmmm.... I look forward to seeing some miraculous recoveries at next week's All Japan Championships. It was interesting to note that Nakanishi compiled the report. Usually, self-financed players are accompanied by their corporate team coach, and the team coach is responsible for writing up the tournament report. (Indeed, Komiyama Hajime was specifically listed as the accompanying coach.) But, there again, Nakanishi used to be affiliated to Unisys, both as a player and coach.
It was Takahashi with the back "injury". To be fair, she's been wearing a back brace for quite some time now, she often could be seen taking it off after games. As far as excuses goes, this one is really solid. No one will be able to prove she wasn't in pain.
Everyone knows Unisys's intent for Syed Modi. Really no need to make public statements with excuses. As for TakaMatsu, the last time they won a title was in Korea, almost 2 months ago. The semis in Fuzhou was the furthest they've advanced. Let's hope they'll be in form do well in Japan or else the "effort" to get that place in the WTF may not end up looking too good
Takahashi is struggling with her back injury within this year, which seems to get worse recently, showing in her performance in recent matches. Hopefully, she can recover soon.
And that's the problem with this pair... it's success is too dependent on Takahashi doing all the hard work raining smashes from the back because Matsutomo (unlike Matsumoto ) is utterly ineffective in attacking when pushed to the back. Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk
This is information garnered from a blog, hence not official. But, attached to the blog is a list of prospective players to be utilised by the various corporate teams in the upcoming S/J League season. These prospective players are usually officially employed by the corporations/organisations after the season is finished, i.e., as of April 1, 2019. If the list is to be believed (and I think it is), then both Koga Minoru (Waseda University, Inter Collegiate Games Champion) and Mizui Hirari (Futaba Future High School, Inter High School Champion) have been signed on by NTT-East. I half-anticipated this, but I am absolutely thrilled. NTT-East really needed this type of boost. Happy, happy, happy....
Hirari Mizui on the right at 2018 World Junior Championships. Daughter of Hisako Mizui, Olympian in 1992 and 1996, I was told.
View attachment 190772 Thanks for pointing that out, here's Hirari's match with Wang Zhiyi during the Mixed Team semi final to advance Japan to the final. Unfortunately for Japan, it was Wang who closed out the match for China to force a 5th GD match, which China took with their superior pair. Btw, watching Wang played Mizui was like watching Chen Yufei vs. Akane Yamaguchi
The list of corporate team affiliations for players graduating from universities/high schools next March is officially available on the S/J League 2 site at http://www.badminton-league.jp/pdf/2018/player_list.pdf?20181116. The list is in Japanese, and I do not have the time to translate all of it at the moment, but if anyone wants to have anything clarified, please ask. As mentioned above, NTT-East have probably done the best by securing Koga Minoru and Mizui Hirari. Tonami and Yonex are not employing anyone at all. Unisys is only picking up one female high school graduate, Takahashi Nana, and Saishunkan, too, is only expected to welcome one newcomer, high school graduate Fukumoto Shiena. In contrast, Hitachi Info and Telecommunications Engineering seems to be aiming for a large-scale reinforcement by employing four university graduates.
Surprisingly Saishunkan and Unisys are not signing up any new blood. Especially Saishunkan. They really need new blood right now.
Yep, as far as Saishunkan is concerned, the 2018 tally is four defections versus one addition. They still have quality players on the roster, but it is going to be revealing to see how well the team performs in this year's SJ League. I think all of the women's teams will have wanted to get hold of Mizui Hirari. The fact that her mother previously coached at NTT-East may have helped tilt the scales, but I would be interested to know the content of these type of negotiations.
The results should become available on the revamped NBA website at https://www.badminton.or.jp/games/2018/alljapan/index.html. Unfortunately, the NBA omitted to include an English-language page. Updates will probably also be posted on the NBA (https://twitter.com/BadmintonPublic) and Badminton Spirit (https://twitter.com/BADMINTONSPIRIT) twitter accounts.
Any info about the draw of All Japan Championship? The draw that I saw on twitter is only in Japanese. I can't really tell who is who except a few top Japanese players.
The draw took place on the 26th, and yesterday the qualifying rounds were played. No big surprises here, except that it is interesting to note that Yamaguchi Akane featured in the WD category. She got through both of her qualifying matches, and has managed to advance to the main draw, the first round of which is being played today. Actually, as far as R1 is concerned, the WS part finished this morning. Probably due to fatigue left over from yesterday, it took Yamaguchi three games to beat a relatively unknown opponent, ... and she still has her WD match to play. Her aspiration this time around apparently is to enjoy herself, and not to set too much store on victory. All National Team A WS players have advanced to R2, although Okuhara had a close first game against a university student, winning by 22-20. With regard to Team B, Nidaira (Tonami) and Suzuki Yuki (Waseda U) have been defeated. And, although she is no longer on the national team, Hashimoto Yui retired. Tomorrow's WS highlight may well be Okuhara vs Mizui Hirari. Yamaguchi will be playing against Takahashi Asuka. https://twitter.com/BadmintonPublic
Oh, thanks. WS category finished earlier than I thought. I guess there are some kind of order which category that will be played first. Looks like NO and AY really take it easy, no need to go all out.
