That is definitely her. Looks like a supreme athlete to me, worthy to be a champion. But her eyes become tiny when she plays badminton .
. Hahaha... For you and I, looking at Nozomi's facebook (posted photos), we should know how she is changing in her appearance. Perhaps, we should direct her to this thread. .
Nozomi not more than 19-yrs-old,good for her,hope to see more of her soon. I mixed her up with Ayane who I think has faded from the scene.
. Was expecting some skeptical responses, as I too hadn't been sure that she is Nozomi. Her hair was combed the other way, and the image isn't inverted laterally, as some posters do for whatever reasons, as the yy logo is on the left and Nozomi is a right hander. Also, she had a white coloured handgrip instead of the yellow one. Did double check this time, as I do not wish to be the resident idiot by posting photos of the wrong person a second time, after mixing the NTT East players up earlier. The source of the photos states her name: http://www.badmintonkorea.co.kr/gnuboard4/bbs/board.php?bo_table=photo&wr_id=597&page=5 오쿠하라 노조미 is Okuhara Nozomi in Korean. In addition, she is one of the four female players among the eight not wearing wristbands, and the only one with orange footwear. Poor Nozomi looked rather distraught in the second photo. It had been a very narrow loss in the gold medal match.
Ayane is the tall one, 1.72 m in stature, I think. She has her own thread. madbad, do you remember this shot ?
Wow, you do have a good memory. Or is that obvious from the photo ? I quote myself: 'Just woke up from sleep look, lol.'
2012 Canadian Open: WS title winner, Nozomi Okuhara . 2012 Canadian Open WS title winner, Nozomi Okuhara, sent us her photo. .
For people wondering, Japanese always cheers their players on during games. In this case, right before Okuhara serves, her team mates shouts "Ippon" which lit. means "One point" but in context "Let's get the next point!". This is very common between doubles players as well. Player A turns to player B and says "Ippon" while player B replies "Hai". I remember when I played in my former university club in Japan. We were all shouting on each other like crazy, even when we lost points. You notice this even more when the Japanese play Team games (i.e. Unisys vs NTT East). The players on court have team mates beside the court constantly cheering on after each point taken or lost. It's sort of an unwritten rule in the Japanese badminton community where you have to cheer your mates on during these types of games.
Thanks for the explanation. Yes, I do notice a very strong team bond, especially with the synchronized cheering.
Looking good for Okuhara in the All Japan Championships. She beat Sayaka Takahashi today 21-14, 21-19 and tomorrow she will play semi-finals. She said after the match that she was very relieved and since she was able to make the national team, she thought that her duty in this tournament was to become at least one of the four best. The article also mensions that she felt pain in her right knee as well as her right elbow during the game... Doesn't sound good
A dream match against Minatsu. Which is surprising, since Minatsu's name isn't in the list for Shenzhen even though she is 13th in BWF's current ranking, 1 above Eriko who is taking part in the tournament. If I were to hazard a guess, it would be that she is injured, but is playing in the All Japan Championships to keep her place in next year's national team. Do you know what the selection criteria is for next year's team? How important is this tournament? Also strange is Ayane's no show in her match against Kaori Imabeppu. http://www.badminton.or.jp/2012/alljapan/result_1207.pdf
Accordingly to this http://www.badminton.or.jp/national/rule.html it says that they select players from the results of this tournament and the national ranking. For singles, only the winner and the runner-up (meaning two men, two women) will be selected. And for doubles, only the winners are selected (two men, two women). In total, there are 40 players in the national team. 20 in the A-team and 20 in the B-team, equally divided between men and women. So yeah, I'd say this tournament is very important for the players.
Minatsu had just beaten Nozomi in the semi final. She will face Kaoru in tomorrow final, I believe Minatsu will take this.