Tago Kenichi has taken to his new profession as a free-lance trainer. According to a Badpal re-tweet, he is currently training Team England in advance of the Sudirman Cup.
Wow! More info here. Apparently, he was invited temporarily join England's national coaching team, with the help of... Yonex!
Anyone know why Yamaguchi didn‘t use the Japan jersey like the others? Is it because she enters the tourney via her corporate team? Why no Saishunkan logo though?
I read some source that the JPN players are allowed to wear corporate's jersey because NZO is not being sanctioned by NBA.
What do you mean by "not being sanctioned"? The NBA, after all, has officially despatched the National B Team, as well as its National B Team coaches. Saishunkan players are behaving strangely, though. Mine Ayumi and Shida/Matsuyama, although originally entered for this tournament, failed to show up. Moreover, Shida/Matsuyama are not listed in the draw for the Japan Ranking Circuit due to be held later this month, an act which won't be taken lightly by the NBA, considering that all of the National B Team customarily take part. Something is brewing, ... I hope it won't affect Yamaguchi at this important time.
Hmmm, I mean that NZO is not part of the NBA calendar for team A. I thought sanction word was fit to described it as I have seen some usage of this word. But, looks like I mixed it up.
The post match interviews for the japanese players can be found here. https://mobile.twitter.com/jsports_shuttle I don't understand japanese but the comments to akane's interview seems to suggest that she lost her baggage.
You're right; Yamaguchi's equipment hasn't arrived! Whilst the racquet that has been prepared for her is fine, she is having problems with the shoes. I presume that her shoes are usually order-made. Judging by the interviews, SonoKam and TakaMatsu appear to be totally focused on the Olympics!! And Kaneko/Kubota come across as really cute.
So true, the OG Tokyo will most likely become TakaMatsu and Kamura/Sonoda's last OG. They are already near 30 y.o. Plus, MD and WD have more than two pairs respectively that have a good chance to secure to OG. They absolutely can't slack off because the internal competition within JPN team is fierce.
Wow, nearly all of JPN A team will participate in Australia Open. They must be preparing really well. Only KM is missing in the list. NO, who is not participating in NZO, will participate along with the rest of JPN A team. It appears that majority of the top players will participate in Australia Open. The WT300+ tournaments will be more merrier and fun than ever.
This is true, but there also is a downside. Top players already complain (rightly so, imo) about the amount of tournaments they have to play under the current rules. If they feel pressured to participate in low level tournaments just because they fear for their spot at the Olympics that can't be good. The risk of injury increases and the performances in important tournaments will be worse. On top of that, lower ranked players will lose a lot of opportunities to play tournaments at all.
In Japan's case, lower-ranked players, for the most part, won't lose the opportunity to play (and are actually financially-supported by the NBA to do so), ... but they won't win, or earn points in any meaningful way. As far as Japan is concerned the entire National B team was eliminated by R2 at the NZ Open! Given the circumstances, these players would be better off if they restricted themselves to Super 100 or IC tournaments.
Now I'm starting to worry about Japanese opportunities at the Sudirman Cup. WD who is their most convicing sector has suddenly dropped lately. They always lose to Korean and Chinese pairs, especially TakaMatsu pair Really want to see them on the highest podium. This year is their golden opportunity.
Well, the JPN WD has lost its touch since German Open. So, I won't call it suddenly dropped. While JPN has KM, who is pretty much auto point for JPN, it is not enough. WD has to fixed whatever shortcomings the pairs have. MD has shown great improvements, but I don't know if MD is reliable enough in SC or not. WS is not really guaranteed though.
If Higashino is unable to play at Nanning, I don’t think Japan has the best prospects of winning the cup despite being the top seed. No matter this WD hullabaloo. KOR won’t retain the cup so doesn’t matter if JPN WD loses to KOR WD as JPN will secure MS, WS and maybe MD if ever they’re drawn against each other. Against CHN however, every point matters. They could’ve won that SF in 2017 (with the aid of that Watanabe/Higashino upset). They could win this year but a fighting chance in all disciplines would really help a lot.
Sometimes the perfection is not perfect, like the way Momota lost to Shi Yuqi at World tour final last year. Sometimes the imperfection is good, like the way Korea won Sudirman 2017.