Badminton in Japan

A limited number of Team A- players have been entered for the Swiss Open. Originally, the entire A Team was planning to play.

And, the Osaka International Challenge has been cancelled for the third consecutive year.

 

JSports, a Japanese subscription channel, organised a JSports Cup exhibition match day on February 15 to commemorate Endo Hiroyuki's retirement from active competition. Here, Unisys, Endo's corporate team, was divided into two teams (Uni + Sys), and the following matches were staged, each match consisting of 11 points:

XD: XD Watanabe/Higashino v MD Inoue/Kawamoto
WS: Takahashi Miyu v Kayama Miho
MS: Igarashi Yu v Watanabe Koki
WD: Matsutomo/Iwanaga v Hoshi/Matsuda
MD: Endo/Watanabe v Hayakawa/Inoue

In the MD final, Watanabe Yuta feigned a leg injury half-way through, and was replaced by Endo's son. which made for light-hearted amusement.

It was news to me, but, from April 1, Nihon Unisys will change its name to Biprogy.

 

I shouldn't need to ask this, but who won?

 

They weren't exactly serious matches , but the scoreline went as follows:

XD: XD Watanabe/Higashino 10-12 MD Inoue/Kawamoto
WS: Takahashi Miyu 10-12 Kayama Miho
MS: Igarashi Yu 11-9 Watanabe Koki
WD: Matsutomo/Iwanaga 8-11 Hoshi/Matsuda
MD: Endo/Watanabe 11-7 Hayakawa/Inoue

That having been said, I do miss Watanabe Yuta as an MD player. He really shouldn't be restricting his skills to mixed doubles. It was great to see him play with Endo again.

Actually, the results of a survey sent by 'Badminton Magazine' to 100 high school badminton team captains were published in March's edition of the magazine. Asked who their favourite players were, the following 'top 3' ranking emerged.

Male Players:
1. Watanabe Yuta
2. Anthony Sinisuka Ginting
3. Lee Chong Wei

(Momota, in case anyone is wondering, ranked in at number 4. ....)

Female Players:
1. Okuhara Nozomi
2. Yamaguchi Akane
3. Higashino Arisa

 

Clearly, the 100 high school badminton team captains might have consisted of mostly singles players. But I'm really surprised to even see Ginting on that list.

 

Onto new employment contracts, which are due to commence from April 2022:

Edit: I have added the domestic ranking (DR) of the players listed below; however, considering the dearth of tournaments over the past two years, and the fact that points are awarded for matches played as far back as 2018, these rankings are largely meaningless.

NTT-East:
Tanaka Yushi (MS, Nihon U, Team B, winner of the AJC 2021, DR 6)
Yamada Naoki (XD, Nippon Sport Science U, Team B, DR 24)
Takei Riki (MS & MD, Futaba Future HS, DR 27(MS), 38 (MD))

Tonami:
Obayashi Takuma (MS, Waseda U, DR 14)

Nihon Unisys (Biprogy):
Moriguchi Koshiro (MS, Saitama Sakae HS, Team B, DR 23)
Takajo Rinryu (MD, U of Tsukuba、DR 188)
Sugiyama Kaoru (WS & WD, Futaba Mirai HS, DR 96 (WS), 33 (WD))

Hitachi Engineering:
Minegishi Hikaru (MS, Hosei U, DR 12)

JTEKT:
Muramoto Ryoma (MD, Nippon Sport Science U, DR 34)
Aizawa Tori (MD, Nihon U, DR 216)

ACT SAIKYO:
Hisaminato Nana (WS, Okazaki Josei HS、DR 64)
Osawa Hina (WD, Aomori Yamada HS, DR 56)
Kurashima Misaki (WD, Saitama Sakae HS, DR -)
Suizu Manami (WS, Yanai Shoko HS, DR 67)

Hokuto Bank:
Masuki Sakura (WS, Sakushin Gakuin HS, DR 74)

 

Smile

 

men's double coach Tan Kim Her joined India team already. It's a pity.

I wonder who will become the next coach for MD of Japan.

 

Okuhara's contract with Taiyo Holdings has been extended to December 2024.

He is still listed as part of Japan's delegation to Germany and England.

 

Yeah, i want to know who also

 

The NBA has updated the list of players due to be sent to the German Open, All England, and Swiss Open.

Tsuneyama, who was scheduled to meet Victor Axelsen in R1 of the German Open appears to have withdrawn, and will now only be participating in the All England. Okuhara, too, had earlier decided to do likewise, probably much to the relief of Michelle Li who was due to play her in R1.

Hoshi/Matsuda (WD) seem to have withdrawn completely, and will compete neither at the German Open, nor AE.

 

I hope so

 

Is it Nagahara was injured and had withdrawn also?

 

Yep, thank you for pointing that out.

Apparently, the defending AE champions will be missing both the German Open and AE; Nagahara sustained a knee injury at the most recent training camp. ... Another training camp injury (sigh).

 

According to Badminton Spirit, Japan's participation as a delegation (primarily the lower half of Team B) in the Slovak Open and Portugal IS has been cancelled. The reason given was that a secure flight path could not be arranged.

That having been said, some Japanese players appear to be playing in the Slovak Open. I am not sure, but they may have arranged their travel independently, or through their corporate teams. Hatano Riku, Gunji Riko, Takei/Endo, and Kato/Hirokami have made it to R2.

 

Congratulations to former Team A player, Sakai Kazumasa, who tied the knot yesterday.

 

These 6 players stayed and trained in Malaysia after the team championship, then flew to Slovakia from Malaysia. I guess the flight path from Malaysia is able to avoid Russian airspace. It will be a long trip back to Japan though.

 

Takei/Endo just lost but I think the rest of the players will win the Slovak Open easily.

Sent from my SM-A307GN using Tapatalk

 

Feel so bad... Last year she suffer injuries liss out entife Europe and bali tournaments...