I guess I deducted major points from Akechi for losing to a first year, but in hindsight, she did lose to the future World Junior Champion. She also lost tamely to Korea in the team match, so another minus there, but did manage to take revenge in the individual championship the week after. I've seen comments saying that she'll be joining Saishunkan next year. She'll make good competition for Gunji if that's the case. The other WS players that Saishunkan hired in recent years are not exactly up to par. The only concern I have with her is her height. She's only 154 cm, even shorter than Yamaguchi and Okuhara. As for Miyazaki, she does have a strong domestic record: middle school champion last year and co-All-Japan Junior champion this year. She did not make it past the preliminary round in the AJC last year, but neither did the much talked about Sawada Shuji. If she managed to make the main draw, hopefully she can stay far away from Yamaguchi in the draw so we can get a good gauge on her.
The S/J League season commenced yesterday, a three-month league-type tournament that pits the nation's top corporate badminton teams against each other. Japan's players tend to take the league very seriously; basically because it is the major PR event of the year as far as their direct employers are concerned. Both Momota and Nishimoto featured yesterday, winning for their teams, NTT-East and JTEKT Stingers, respectively. Today, the two players are slated to meet each other, which will make for fascinating watching. In Japan, S/J league matches are live-streamed on JSports, a subscription channel. Some matches will find their way onto the Internet, so keep a look-out if you are interested. As far as information on team players and updates on results are concerned, the S/J League website is accessible at BADMINTON S/J LEAGUE (sj-league.jp). The information is in Japanese, but some of it can probably be deciphered.
interesting student matches : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr1hEHskxfVvRinLmc04Xqg/videos including Naraokaさん :
Sorry if I'm our of modern badminton, but does anyone know how Minatsu Mitani and Koharu Yonemoto are doing? Last two months I saw a picture of Yonemoto with her kid. For Mitani, she just disappeared. (Both were my crushes )
Koharu Yonemoto retired in 2020 alongside her partner Shiho Tanaka; as for Mitani, don't know much about her disappearance. I think Yonemoto and Tanaka still support Hokuto Bank, their corporate team in Japan. I also saw the picture of her with the Hokuto Bank squad during the S/J League.
I don't know him but there is a young Japanese Masato Yamashiro in the U15 category who is quite good in this tournament : https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/tournament/e2d503f8-ba2e-42dd-9386-221787f1fa46 The video of his match that took place today:
Yamashiro lost to school teammate, Masuda Haru, in the final. Masuda recently won the All Japan Junior Championship in the U15 category a few months ago. It was also an all Japanese U15 WS final between this year's Middle School Champion, Asano Mao, and All Japan U15 Junior Champion, Anami Meisa. The U15 group did very well this week, while the U17 group fell short. Japan did not send their top U19 juniors. All the U17 and U15 players from this tournament will be moving on to the Badminton Asia U17 & U15 Junior Championship in Thailand next week. Let's see if the U17 players can perform better. Keep an eye out for Sawada Shuji in MS. Many expect him to be the next up-and-coming MS after Naraoka.
The recently crowned WJC, Miyazaki Tomoka, just won her first senior title in Slovenia, beating out teammate, Akechi Hina, in the final! Granted, the draw did not feature any other Asian player, but this is a good first step nonetheless. She will be making the main draw of the All Japan Championship in December. The All Japan Championship, will, no doubt, be much tougher. Personally, I would love to see a match up between Miyazaki and her predecessor, Gunji.
Thanks for the information ! ah I found out that he also played in the doubles final.with Shogo Miyashita :
How did naraoka improved in one day? His match against axelson is day and night compared to yesterday
Hmmm, he is really starting to become menacing at this level. Actually, there were already signs of improvement in the second game of his match against Axelsen at the group stage. Naraoka is not a particularly elegant or efficient player; what I am beginning to like about his style is his positivism. At this stage of his career, he has everything to go for, and nothing much to protect, status-wise. This is reflected in his game.
Tonami players (yes, this is self-financed) are doing really well at the Canadian International Challenge. Obayashi Takuma, Nidaira Natsuki, and Kaneko/Shimono are all through to the final. At this rate, Nidaira will soon overtake her team-mate, Ohori Aya. Obayashi, too, although hampered by injury during his university years, has started to make his presence felt.
Until he is in the losing trend, I've no problem with how he is playing. Doesn't have to be elegant or appear "efficient." Just have to be hard working practicing, training, love winning or at least gives the opponent a hard time. Edit : Never become stagnant and stuck on just one style but willing to try out new skills ... whatever works. Never stop learning and improving, improvising. Not afraid of the pain and of getting tired. (Of course, be wise in pushing ownself. No need to over do it and get injured ... as long as keep on the improving course ... It's ok to sometimes loose with a close fight.) What a difference from Tsuneyama and Nishimoto who are also talented but somehow, stuck with some limitations. Sent from my XQ-BT52 using Tapatalk
I watched Naraoka practice. He works out his abs a lot for balance, I really like this kind of strength. Nishimoto seems to have very good defense, but not the kind of defensive strength of Naraoka