A & B National Team members have been published. Noticeable new faces in A Team are Yuki Kanako (Men Team, XD with Misaki Matsutomo), Asuka Takahashi (WS) and Sakuramoto/Takahata (WD), plus Misaki (XD). Aya Ohori was degraded to Team B
Japan's National Team 2021 was announced today. At the turn of the year, PJB publicly voiced how difficult it was to select the players for either Team A or B, primarily because he was not sure to what extent the lack of match fitness (due to coronavirus) had prevented Team A players from performing up to par at the 2020 All Japan Championships. He probably wanted to see how they would bear up in Thailand before making a final decision but, unfortunately, that no longer proved to be an option. Team A MS: Momota Kento (NTT-East) Tsuneyama Kanta (Tonami) Nishimoto Kenta (Gifu Badminton Association) Watanabe Koki (Unisys) WS: Okuhara Nozomi (Taiyo Holdings) Yamaguchi Akane (Saishunkan) Takahashi Asuka (Yonex) Takahashi Sayaka (Unisys) MD: Endo/Watanabe (Unisys) Hoki/Kobayashi (Tonami) Koga/Saito (NTT-East) Sonoda/Kamura (Tonami) WD: Fukushima/Hirota (Marusugi Bluvic) Nagahara/Matsumoto (Hokuto Bank) Sakuramoto/Takahata (Yonex) Shida/Matsuyama (Saishunkan) XD: Watanabe/Higashino (Unisys) Kaneko/Matsutomo (Unisys) Coaches: Park Joo Bong (Head Coach, NBA) Nakashima Kei (NBA) Tan Kim Her (NBA) Choi Sangbeom (NBA) Nakanishi Yosuke (NBA) Jeremy Gan Wye Teck (NBA) Team B: MS: Tanaka Yushi (Nihon U) Koga Minoru (NTT-East) Shimono Hashiru (Tonami) Onodera Yusuke (Unisys) Kodai Naraoka (IMG) Hatano Riku (Tonami) WS: Shimoda Natsumi (Hiroshima Gas) Mizui Hirari (NTT-East) Saito Shiori (ACT SAIKYO) Kawakami Saena (Hokuto Bank) Ohori Aya (Tonami) Gunji Riko (Yatsushiro Shirayuri HS) Nidaira Natsuki (Tonami) MD: Okamura/Onodera (Unisys/Waseda U) Takeuchi/Matsui (Hitachi Info & Telecommunication Engineering) Inoue/Mitsuhashi (Unisys) Kaneko/Kubota (Tonami) WD: Hoshi/Matsuda (Unisys) Nakanishi/Iwanaga (Unisys) Yokoyama/Yasaki (San-in Godo Bank) XD: Yamashita/Shinoya (Nippon Sport Science U/NTT-East) Nishikawa/Ozaki (NTT-East) Midorikawa/Saito (Waseda U/ACT SAIKYO) Yamada/Ikeuchi (Nippon Sport Science U/77 Bank) Coaches: Lee Wangwa (NBA) Karel Leopold Mainaky (NBA) Masuda Keita (Tonami) Hayakawa Kenichi (Unisys) Imabeppu Kaori (Yonex)
Takahashi Asuka is currently ranked 83. I wonder how she is going to be able to participate in the same tournaments as the A team. Honorary A team member like Takeshita?
I think that she will primarily be entered for B+ events, such as the Swiss Open, Canada Open, etc. Probably, the most important factor here is that she will be able to train with other Team A members at the national training camps. Customarily, training sessions are strictly divided, and team B players have no chance to engage in any practice with Team A members. The regimen apparently differs, too.
she'll continue to play a ton of other tournaments to build up points in order to keep moving up. she's not there to sit idle. maybe her financing changes. since she's on the 'a' team i'm guessing they'll pay her tournament expenses, even though she only qualifies for int'l challenger and wt 100 levels right now. any insight on that @kurako ?
i added the ages above. you can tell which direction their respective careers are headed. at 28 years old i thought takahashi sayaka will retire, or at least soon. if so who would move up to the a team? does ohori aya get another chance ranked 19th or does 43rd ranked kawakami saena get promoted instead?
As far as financing is concerned, there is no difference between Team A and Team B players. With respect to international tournaments, each player is required to pay 50,000 JPY for hotel expenses, with the NBA picking up the rest of the tab. However, according to the criteria laid down, only Team A players can, in principle, participate in anything at the World Tour Super 500 level or above. It really is difficult for Team B players to meaningfully raise their rankings. I suppose this means how old they will become this year. Off the top of my head, I know that Gunji is still 18, as she is a high school pupil. But I know what you are getting at. I, too, thought that Takahashi Sayaka would retire. I don't know; she might be considered necessary as an Olympic substitute in the event that Okuhara or Yamaguchi meet up with an accident/mishap/incident in the run-up to the Games. .... The NBA probably still has nightmares about 2016. I suppose it all depends how they fare this year and at the 2021 All Japan Championships. Actually, Covid-19 has had positive consequences for Kawakami. She was dropped from National Team B in 2020, hence had very little prospect of participating in any international tournaments. Had coronavirus not put a hold on these tournaments (and had points not been frozen), then she would have fallen considerably further in the rankings.
Yup, what I meant when I mentioned Takeshita . Unlike Takeshita, she is still young so training with the A team will benefit her. Let's hope COVID will cooperate so there will be tournaments for her to play. Her current ranking is based on 7 tournaments so there's slightly less work that needs to be done, but unless she's the next ASY, it will take some time. Look forward to seeing her progress .
Don't understand why they pushed Takahashi Asuka that hard. She's not a junior anymore but she couldn't even win a World Tour title (even S100!). She didn't even make it to SF in All Japan Championships despite she has been in national team since 2016. What is their expectation from her? Or does she have "someone" in NBA that "help" her to maintains her position in National Team and help her climb to Team A?
Takahashi Asuka has been the most consistent Team B player. On the domestic scene, she ranks in at No 5, just beneath Ohori, and, indeed, was the Ranking Circuit champion in 2019. She has good head to head record against other Team B players, and could be argued to deserve a chance. Although Takahashi has not won a World Tour title, she was runner-up at the Vietnam Open, and has posted good results at the International Challenge level. It is important to note that, as a Team B player, she was ineligible to be entered into any Tournament higher than the 300 level, and the lack of exposure at the upper echelon of the game will have hindered her progress. She has beaten An Se Young at the annual Japan-Korea Tournament and, at 21 years of age, still has potential, ... I think. Being able to train with other Team A players should raise the level of her game. Her result at the All Japan Championships 2020 was unfortunate, but her vanquisher, Shimoda Natsumi, was in extremely good form. Shimoda had, after all, also beaten Ohori Aya, on the previous day.
YoneTana looking good at their Press Conference! Yonemoto plans to work as a free-lance coach/instructor and study sport nutrition; Tanaka will stay on with the team (Hokuto Bank) as a manager.
Are you sure about Yamada/Ikeuchi as a mixed pair? Yamada hasn't played XD internationally and at All Japan, he only played MD with Yamashita. Ikeuchi played mixed with a partner who isn't on the national team but it's hard to tell as she only has one international tournament.
Absolutely. Prior to uploading the information, I checked the team list published by the NBA, which reads as follows: I am not sure whether it happened this year, but in the last couple of years an additional "screening" to determine mixed pairs customarily took place shortly after the All Japan Championships. This particular pair does not currently feature on the NBA mixed doubles ranking list, which means that they are a fresh set-up. But as Ikeuchi graduated from Nippon Sport Science U, i.e., the same university that Yamada is currently attending, it is possible that they have more experience of playing together than we imagine. No explanation has been given by the NBA.
Where does NBA show the pairings? Here it shows the players but not the pairings. All but Yamada/Ikeuchi are obvious from past experience. Interesting point about the university team.
The NBA has uploaded information on the hosting of a national training camp for Team A players, due to be held from February 28 to March 5. Usually, the training camp's rationale is spelt out as practice for BOTH the German Open and the All England; however, this time, no mention is made of the latter. Somehow, I get the impression that that Japan will not be sending its players to England this year. A related point: Ohori Aya, who has been entered for the German Open, has not been invited to the camp. As she is now a Team B player, she will no longer be able to benefit from these top-class training sessions. Her participation in the All German, too, will be self-/corporate team-financed, ... and not supported by the NBA.
Poor Ohori, I think that Germen Open tour 300 is a playground for team B, and It seems to me that team A occupied that tournament from team B. ^-^ Malaysia Open will be postpone due to "money problem" and for sure it cannot take place as schedule in March. It can be May or further, so that it sounds stupid to just move to Europe and play only one tournament 300. The money and the time will be waste. Top Japan players cannot earn something from German Tour 300 but risk.