Come on, ... this is a constant problem for Yamaguchi and Okuhara against most players in most tournaments, but somehow they are still ranked No. 2 and 5, respectively. This may suggest that they generally have high stamina levels. On top of that, the All Japan Championships are not quite as taxing as you imagine. Sure, at the semi-final~final level, players will probably find themselves up against other national team members, ... but the first couple of days, or so, are not that gruelling. It is not a BWF Tour event. Momota did have a lucky draw, ...but don't underestimate him. This is not a back-to-back tournament, and he certainly looked fresh today.
Is it just me or am I correct in my impression that Yamaguchi is kind of chubby that's why she seems to be constantly out of steam? But in fairness to her, despite that, she's still no. 2 Sent from my JSN-L22 using Tapatalk
You were right - all 5 top ten doubles are listed for the Malaysia 500 in January, but only Shida/Matsuyama are playing Thailand 300 Just took a look at the M/Q report for Thailand. Shida/Matsuyama the only participating pair, Aratama/Watanabe withdrew on December 11, the same date PJB announced they were not on the B team roster. Harsh.
Japanese badminton team has achieved great result throughout this year. Overall, they won 46 Grade 2 titles, with 9 S100 titles, 11 S300 titles, and 26 S500+ titles. Last year, Japan only got 10 SS titles. This is very huge improvements compare to last year. There are a lot of players who won the title throughout this year. Whether it is a high tier tournament or the lower tier one, Japan has achieved great results. Here is the list of players who won three or more Grade 2 titles. - Ayako/Yukiko (7 titles) - Yuki/Sayaka (5 titles, BAC, Uber Cup, AG team gold medal) - Misaki/Ayaka (5 titles, Uber Cup, AG team gold medal) - Kento Momota (4 titles, BAC, WC) - Sayaka Takahashi (4 titles, Uber Cup) - Nozomi Okuhara (3 titles, Uber Cup, AG team gold medal) - Yuta Watanabe (3 titles) I am curious to know who is the best players among Japanese team as there are so many great players out there.
S/J League is coming to my town (!!) on December 23rd, so I will be taking my children to watch. Unfortunately, NTT-East's men's team will not feature ; instead we have the women's team versus Gifu Tricky Panders (of FukuHiro fame). I wonder whether FukuHiro will actually play...as Tricky Panders have lost both their matches, they probably need to. And the same goes for Mitani Minatsu, who has not only been abruptly dropped from the national team, but who also failed to play for NTT-East in the last S/J League match, ... which the team went on to lose. Actually, neither of these two teams have won a match yet.... and it hardly needs emphasising that the team positioned at the bottom of the league table will be relegated to S/J League II in 2019. It would be ironic if the World No. 1 WD were to become second-leaguers in their own country. The men's match, JTEKT v. Osaka Tricky Panders, will probably be tame in comparison.
Three Japanese MS players have made it to the SF of the 2018 YONEX/K&D GRAPHICS International Challenge. Igarashi and Naraoka will be facing each other yet again, and Watanabe Koki will come up against the No. 1 seed, Hsu Jen Hao. And, there is also quite a large Japanese delegation planning to take part in the Estonian International and Swedish Open next month. M & Qs are viewable at http://circuit.badmintoneurope.com/cms/?&pageid=5950. I will be interested in seeing how Urushizaki Mako, Mizui Hirari and Koga Minoru fare.
Sorry if what I post is a bit OOT. But, I want to ask this question out of curiosity. Does Japan have an award such like the best player among the Japanese athletes? In Indonesia, there is the Indonesia Sports Award with many categories such as the best player overall, the best individual player, the best team, etc. I just wonder if Japan has such awards or not. If yes, are there any Japanese badminton players who won the awards?
As far as I am aware, the Government does not award a specific sports award, although this year Hanyu Yuzuru (figure skater) was given a National Honour Award. It is usually the big newspapers/mass media that dish out sports prizes, with the Yomiuri Sports Award probably being the most prestigious. Incidentally, the Grand Prix this year here also went to Hanyu Yuzuru (well, I suppose it was his second consecutive Olympic gold, after all). Other, slightly lesser, Yomiuri sports prizes went to the Women's Speed Skating Team, Ikee Rikako (Swimming), and Osaka Naomi (Tennis). IMO, Momota's (as well as the WD pairs') achievements surpassed those of, at least, Osaka Naomi, but the Yomiuri Shimbun is a conservative paper, and Momota's past exploits may have adversely affected his chances of an award. That apart, badminton is still considered a minor sport. TV-Asahi, however, did see fit to commend Momota. He was awarded not the top prize, but a special prize, especially for his achievement in winning the WC. As for any other badminton players.... no prizes that I know of at the national level. Incidentally, the results of a survey on "athletes' images" were published yesterday. Momota ranked in 5th in the male category, both for athletes who performed well this year, and in the category for those who are expected to perform well next year. 1. Hanyu Yuzuru (Figure Skating) 2. Otani Shohei (Baseball) 3. Nishikori Kei (Tennis) 4. Uno Shoma (Figure Skating) 5. Momota Kento (Badminton) 6. Osako Yuya (Football) 7. Osako Suguru (Marathon) 8. Harimoto Tomokazu (Table Tennis) 9. Maru Yoshihiro (Baseball) 10. Uchimura Kohei (Gymnastics) No other badminton player, male or female, featured. How did Ginting, Christie and, of course, the Minions do in Indonesia?
Wow... Naraoka must be annoyed by having been thrown out of the national team. He has managed to beat Igarashi Yu for the first time, ... and in straight sets! Moreover, Watanabe Koki (ranked world no. 106) managed to overcome Hsu Jen Hao. So, tomorrow's MS final will be an all Japanese affair.
The number one, Yuzuru Hanyu, is no surprise. He has been fabulous throughout the year. It is nice to see KM among the top ten. Despite Japanese badminton has gained more popularity and become stronger, it is still considered as minor sport as you said. I wonder what should Japanese badminton do in order to be among the top 10 sports in Japanese. Talking about Indonesia, yes, Minions won the Most Favorite Men's Pair and Athlete of The Year in the Indonesia Sports Award. Ginting won the Most Favorite Men's Individual. You can check it up on the Indonesia Badminton thread (page 182). Do you know that Ginting, not Minions, is the Indonesia athlete that INA peoples talk the most in Twitter? Funnily, Ginting doesn't even aware of this.
I do enjoy watching Kodai Naraoka play. At least ... in the links that i found here in this forum. He is a player to watch and hopefully, he will make good progress as a professional player. Appreciate if someone can send some links to watch his recent matches.
Today, Koga Minoru (younger brother of Koga Akira) won his debut S/J League match for NTT-East against Mitsubishi Motor's Tsunezuka Hikaru. Koga, who will be graduating from Waseda University next March, was playing instead of Momota, and may well displace Baba Yusei as NTT-East's second MS. Roughly at the same time, Okuhara Nozomi played and won her final match for Nihon Unisys, beating Hayashi Moto of ACT SAIKYO in straight games.
I see Nishimoto playing slowly and has slight smashes. I don't know exactly about this because his opponent can be weak and then he plays slowly. But if this is Nishimoto's style in 2019, he really improved and "know how to play men's single". I was so exciting to see his display in 2019
Yeeeeeeha, Saishunkan beat Hokuto Bank 2-1 Fujii/Ono vs Nagamatsu: 1-2 (18-21, 21-16, 14-21) Yamaguchi vs Kawakami: 2-1 (21-17, 14-21, 21-19) Shida/Matsuyama vs Tanaka/Yonemoto: 2-1 (21-16, 9-21, 22-20) Here's a totally unrelated clip of the team training to incredibly peaceful music:
The other part of the S/J League tournament today was held in Kariya, where I live... so I went to see Gifu Tricky Panders vs. NTT-East. This was actually a feast, as I was able to watch FukuHiro in action again; however, apart from their performance, the team looked to be struggling, ... not least of all financially. It was obvious that there is limited support, be it just by looking at outfits/equipment, the bus that shuttled the players over from Gifu, or the discrepancy in the number of fans. The same applied to the Osaka Tricky Panders (men's team); they were so depleted, that the final MD pair had a player who, even if we ignore the fact that he was forty-three years old, sported an injured ankle, and was totally unable to move. His poor partner was scuttling all over the court to retrieve shots, ... to no avail, of course. Well, today's matches were the last of the year. S/J League will resume again in February 2019. I have pasted the interim results below. The two top teams of each block will face each other in the TOP 4 Tournament scheduled on February 16~17, and currently it looks like Tonami, Hitachi, NTT-East, and Unisys for the men, and Unisys, Yonex, Hokuto and Saishunkan for the women. No surprises there.
At the end of 2018, Japan has collected 26 WT500+ titles, 2 WCs and Uber Cup. This is the best achievement from Japan. For the first time, Japan becomes the country that win titles the most. For the first time, Japan has placed their players to the top 3 in all of the categories. The top 3 JPN WDs have completely dominated the top 3 WD. Yuta/Arisa reach the 3rd rank, their highest ranking in their career. Kamura/Sonoda are also at the 3rd rank in MD category. In WS category, NO reaches her highest ranking, replacing AY in the 2nd rank. Finally, in MS category, our golden man, KM, completes his ascendancy to the first rank after restarting his career last year. In short, 7 JPN reps in the top 3 and 12 JPN reps in the top 10. Now, for the next season in 2019, do you all think that Japan can collect more than 30 WT500+ titles? About Sudirman Cup, raise your hands if you think that Japan will win it.
Well, I'd give two out of 5 already to China with XD and MD, where Japan has absolutely nothing to offer. And while KM, the WDs and WS might be favourites, there's absolutely no guarantee for wins in all of those three disciplines. Don't think it's as obvious as some might think.
