Does anyone know what happened to this mysterious women's doubles team of Tsukiko Yasaki & Erika Yokoyama? They won the Austrian Open (International Challenge) 2020 out of nowhere, but didn't continue with their (international) careers it seems. See here, for example, Erika's BWF profile: https://bwf.tournamentsoftware.com/player-profile/4aaca86f-b569-4df0-ae13-3efbc5fa40e2/tournaments Reasons, I can come up with: - Injuries - Or they did not make it further through the strict national team hierarchy?
This outing to the Austrian Open is interesting, in that it involved not members of the National Team, but a delegation composed of corporate players, mostly from San-in Godo Bank. Yokoyama/Yasaki were, and still are, members of that particular team. As it was not a national team delegation, the costs incurred will have been borne by the corporate teams and/or individual players. The tournament itself was held near the end of the fiscal year, and it is possible that the teams had a surplus budget which was spent in this manner.
Thank you so much for this very interesting information. So that means they are still playing and competing? I am wondering, why they don't play international tournaments? Surely, they would be competitive. But the reason clearly is, that they are not in the national team, and the Japanese Federation will only send player from the national team to international tournaments. I am wondering, however, if these "San-in Godo Bank" players are still professional players? Do they earn money from playing badminton or do they have other jobs?
Actually, the NBA recently posted its criteria for independently-financed players for 2022. These players need to be ranked in the top 64 in Japan's domestic rankings; they may only take part in tournaments that are ranked at the 300 level or below; and, in principle, they should not participate in international tournaments to which the Japanese National Team is being sent. According to these criteria, Yasaki/Yokoyama could theoretically compete abroad. However, in order to do that, they would need to secure financing. And, of course, there is the problem of 'equal treatment' within the corporate team. If Yasaki/Yokoyama are permitted to compete, then other players will also want to benefit from similar experiences. But, what corporate team is willing or able to spend that amount of money? San-in Godo Bank team members are salaried players. Their job is to play badminton, ... although they may occasionally be asked to go to their nominal posts in the office.
Thank you, very interesting. I wonder though, how they are financed? Is it some business companies who fund the salaries of these players? And since these players don't earn prize money, because they don't play internationally, they solely depend on their salary and compete nationally, is that correct? Or are there national tournaments that give prize money? Do Yasaki/Yokoyama have social media profiles of some sorts? If yes, can you share?
Yep, corporate teams work that way. The corporations/banks have 'symbol' teams, and pay monthly salaries to the players. Incidentally, most National Team A players, too, are salaried corporate team players. Of course, on top of their monthly salaries, they earn international tournament prize money, 10% of which goes to the NBA and, undoubtedly, another portion being returned to the corporate teams. No national tournaments that I know of give prize money. Sorry, I couldn't find any social media accounts. The only thing I came up with was the San-in Godo Bank FB page at: https://www.facebook.com/山陰合同銀行バドミントン部-328367921079367/
sorry to come back to this: is there a website where I can see the results of these team matches where Yasaki/Yokoyama participating?
As of April 2023, Yasaki/Yokoyama no longer feature on the HP as team members of San-in Godo Bank. As Yokoyama is already 32, they may have retired. The pair had a really good showing at the All Japan Championships last December, though, getting as far as the SF! They were beaten by Sakuramoto/Miyaura.
