hmm, try to conceal embezzling yet censure a player for gambling. Smells very badly of double standards.
Agree that the future of WS is not in good shape. The 3rd best WS, by far, is Takahashi Sayaka, and she is, what, 29 or 30 this year? Gunji, the most promising candidate, might have followed in her illustrious seniors' footsteps in winning the World Junior Championship title, but she's nowhere near their levels when they were her age. I've been seeing here and there that this Tanioka kid, first year high school, has been creating upsets in the high school MS pecking order. I'll be keeping an eye on him. It's too bad that international junior tournaments have been nonexistent these past couple of years so we cannot gauge where the Japanese youngsters are on the international level. Regarding the embezzlement, the prize money embezzled were from the lower ranking tournaments? Imagine how much it would have been if the employee had embezzled from Team A's prize money - they were quite winning a lot in 2018!
As of April 1, Watanabe Yuta will be following the footsteps of Okuhara and Momota in that he is turning 'pro'. He will continue to have a contract with, and train at, Unisys (to be renamed Biprogy from April 1), but is also hoping to attract other sponsors and raise the profile of badminton in Japan.
i like this news. make the best out of what you have, while you can. he's young and has plenty of time to do whatever he wants after his badminton days are over.
excuse me! you mean Okuhara and Nishimoto, right ??? I don't know what "pro" means ??? Independence ?
No, I meant Momota and Okuhara. Momota went 'pro' last April, although, like Watanabe, he still retains a strong affiliation to his former employer. Sorry, I forgot about Nishimoto, ... and Naraoka. 'Pro', as far as it relates to Japan, means that you are no longer a salaried employee of your corporation, but instead, earn income through sponsors, advertisements, and non-salary types of contracts.
News from Biprogy (formerly Nihon Unisys) 1. Watanabe Yuta has concluded a 'pro' contract with the team. He will still be representing Biprogy in team events such as the S/J League. 2. As far as retirements are concerned, Endo has been joined by Onodera Yusuke. Both will remain with the team as coaches. 3. Ebihara Shiori has transferred to Showa Denko. 4. New employees (players): Takajoh Rinryu (MD, Tsukuba U.); Moriguchi Koshiro (MS, National B Team, Saitama Sakae HS); Sugiyama Kaoru (WD, Futaba Mirai HS).
And now for updates on NTT-East: 1. Team director, Suga Takahiro, who took the helm following the near-destruction of the badminton team in 2016, has been replaced by Kawamae Naoki, the former head coach. The head coach's shoes are now filled by no other than Sato Shoji, the erstwhile singles coach, who played a large part in Momota's development. And, the new singles coach is former coach and singles player, Saeki Koichi. 2. Whilst there are no additions to the women's team, the men's team has been reinforced, and now features 13 players! Newbies, Tanaka Yushi (MS, National Team B, Nihon U., ... winner of the AJC 2021 in men's singles), Yamada Naoki (XD, National Team B, Nippon Sport Science U.), and Takei Riki (MS/MD, Futaba Future HS) can all be expected to contribute to the team.
There are also some (ex)Tonami related changes: -Nishimoto who has been training in Gifu with Marusugi is joining Jtek. This will make the S/J League more interesting. -Kamura is joining Yonex as one of the coaches. -Kubota Yunosuke, of the Kubota/Kaneko Mahiro pair (former World Junior MD Champions), is leaving Tonami. There's a good chance this will lead to a Shimono/Kaneko pairing.
Kubota is still only 21; I wonder what his plans are? Nishimoto...; he had initially hoped to attract enough sponsors to go 'pro'. But this may have proven difficult in Japan's corporate sports culture. Having said that, it could be a 'pro' contract. Incidentally, JTEKT haven't updated their home page yet, but Gondo Kohei, erstwhile partner of Kurihara Ayane, has retired.
About Nishimoto, I don't know his family's wealthy, but he should ask BJ to take part in tour 100 and tour 300 by his budget and must win these tournaments to attract sponsors. Anyway his rank will be lowed as ranking list defrost, and I hope he cannot apply to 750 or 1000 tournament. yeah, In lower tournaments, like tour 100 and tour 300, he can win the tour and there is always livestream on all courts. I can watch him more.
Does Yuta Watanabe even still want to play MD? He and higashino are doing so well, he might want to juz focus on that.
In his "I am now a 'pro'" interview, Watanabe was asked this question. He answered that he is thinking about it, but still hasn't come to a conclusion.
Hearsay is that Kubota will go back home to help with the family business. He might be giving up on a badminton career. Getting demoted from Team B might have been the deciding factor. The pair had been in Team B for quite a few years already, and still without any significant result, especially given their junior accomplishment.
Don't know about now because of Covid travel restrictions, but players were allowed to register for the lower tournaments so long as they foot the bills. Tons of Team A players did it in 2019, during the Olympics qualifying period. It could be expensive for Nishimoto since he's not covered by a corporate team anymore. Unless he ends up winning those tournaments, the prize money will likely not be enough to cover the expenses.
Nice to see that at least some of the A-/B+ cohort have managed to make it to R2 of the Korea Open. Let me correct that; the A- component, i.e., Watanabe Koki and Takahashi Asuka failed to do so. And, Kawakami's defeat of Michelle Li today probably says more about Li's condition than it does about Kawakami's. R2 features some interesting tie-ups, especially: XD: Midorikawa/Saito v. Goh/Lai MS: Naraoka v. Christie
