Somehow this video came up in my YouTube suggestion and I'm glad it did. Some high quality rallies here. Especially the tall youth in red. Must be competitive college or provincial level. Sent from my SM-G988W using Tapatalk
Kikuchi Yuta (24) is affiliated to Tohoku Marks, one of the corporate teams that features in the SJ League. He is the team's star MS player, and ranks in at No. 45 on the national MS ranking list. I am not sure, but this appears to be a friendly local club get-together.
The best badminton club in the world™ continues to fill its new Youtube channel with content. Here's a double's game, even with multiple camera angles (well....sort of). To my great pleasure, there's a certain world junior champion watching the game from the stands.
I am wondering whether you also managed to watch Yamaguchi slug it out with Ikeda Yuichi, Saishunkan's head coach.
It has now been five months since Momota's thread was accidentally removed. I was hoping that we would see some kind of 'restoration' before the World Tour resumes. @kwun, could you please provide an update?
Today, the NBA officially announced the list of players to be sent to the Denmark Open. As everyone knows, the entire A Team will be taking part. The team's departure from Japan is scheduled on October 10.
The Denmark's draw was already done, so that we all knew who would be sent to Denmark. BTW, 4 men's single players of Japan will be on the top haft of the draw, unfortunately.
Yep, I saw the draw, too. Luckily, Antonsen has joined Chou Tien Chen in the bottom half. It is quite imaginable that the top half may well see two Japanese players make it to the SF stage.
So, just Nishimoto/Okuhara and two women's pair will be sent to Denmark, the others will stay at home and continue to wait ?
Oh dear, ... just one day after NBA's public announcement that the entire team would be participating. Apparently, it was the corporate teams that requested that the players be withdrawn, and somehow I have impression that the relationship between the individual teams on one side, and the NBA (which was intent on participating) on the other, is becoming increasingly strained. ----------- Nishimoto, Okuhara, and THREE WDs. Nishimoto and Okuhara are not employed by any corporate teams. They are free agents. As for the WDS: Nagahara/Matsumoto are employed by Hokuto Bank. Fukushima/Hirota, recently transferred (American Vape went bankrupt), and are now employed by Marusugi BLUVIC. Saishunkan is interesting in that Shida/Matsuyama are participating in the Denmark Open, whereas Yamaguchi is not. The more established teams, i.e., NTT-East, Nihon Unisys, and Tonami have, rather belatedly, opted not to send any players to Denmark. ------------ The next event featuring the majority of big names in Japan will be the All Japan Championships (AJC), due to be held towards the end of December 2020. As the 2021 National Team selection will be based on the results of this tournament, I really cannot see any players withdrawing. Unless they intend to retire, that is.
Narf, I was really looking forward to the tournament. With Yamaguchi they might want to play it safe because of her asthma. At least that would explain why two Saishunkan players participate and she doesn't.
My relationship with these fools would be strained as well if they let me announce a lineup for Denmark in public and then veto it a day after the announcement. I assume no hard questions have been asked of the heads of the NCT and Unisys teams, right?
another obvious and unfortunate consequence of bwf's player 'ownership' rule... as you know in japan's case the athletes are owned by their employer rather than a nat'l federation. in the end it's the same.... so nba is caught in the middle: 'we want to play, but have no say...' this pandemic is magnifying the gross errors of bwf's system, and quite frankly i'm glad. however, it's sad nobody within bwf cares enough to change things for the better of badminton's future. all they care about is their own employment.
Nishimoto lost the ticket to join WTF 2018 just because Tonami Club didn't send him to India Open (or India Master ???), I remember that. This time Nishimoto would be attended Denmark Open because he was free to choose, this made me so happy and continue to support his choice (go out of Tonami Club) Nishimoto would be happy to take part in Denmark this time. Go and take the title, the Ronin.
It is actually a real slap-in-the-face for the NBA, and in particular for Zeniya Kinji (Secretary General) and Park Joo Bong (Head Coach). Zeniya faced the press in person on September 27 after an NBA meeting, and publicly announced that the entire team would head out to Denmark. He went as far as to state that the players were burning to play. And, when the NBA officially announced the list of players to be despatched on the NBA website on October 1, it was taken for granted that they would participate. Indeed, October 1 also marked the first day of a ten-day national training camp to prepare for the Denmark Open. And then the bombshell was dropped on the following day. I really feel sorry for Park Joo Bong. He tried to hold a national training camp three times this summer, only to be repeatedly turned down. So, instead, he spent most of July-August zig-zagging across Japan to visit the various corporate teams and gauge the level of the players. Park features in a four-page interview in this month's edition of Badminton Magazine, and here, he comes across as so happy and relieved that the Team was finally able to convene for a camp in September, and that they would compete internationally in Denmark. … The poor man has spent sixteen years in Japan trying his best to wean the players away from their teams and to build up some leverage for the NBA, only to have all his efforts reduced to nothing in the space of six months. You assume correctly. Absolutely zilch. I, too, hope that Nishimoto and Okuhara prevail. That one of the three WDs will take the title is probably a given fact.
i missed watching the amazing Kento Momota as he work out ways and push himself to win matches and competitions. Not expecting him to be completely in his best form after the long break but it is good for him to be in the competition spirit.
I was eagerly looking forward to seeing the team in action again. How unfortunate it is, to have the corporate teams flexing their muscles to protect the players. I can't say they are wrong but it could have been handled better. Anyway, with all due respect to the other countries' athletes, I honestly thought JPN would have MD, WD and MS in the bag if they sent all the players. XD is also possible but I guess it's not meant to be now
