2009 Worlds

nobody@vox.com(monjiro) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:40:01 +0900

2009 Worlds

I LOVE THIS VIDEO!!!

You must watch this. Extremely cool!

Tomita at Worlds

nobody@vox.com(monjiro) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:03:12 +0900

I'm afraid this title is somewhat contradictory to the last post. Tomita was there not as an athlete, but as part of the coaching staff for Team Japan.

"Coach Tomita" watching the podium training.

He was not just watching . . .

He was working!

On his left is Tachibana, head coach of the Japanese team for this quadrennial.

In a TV interview before the Prelims.

Asked about Uchimura, he said, "In terms of talent, Uchimura is the best (in the world)."

He's very proud of Uchi.

But Tomita also said that the Japanese team had a big concern about the apparatuses.

The apparatuses used at this Worlds were GYMNOVA's. According to him, there were big differences between the apparatuses made by GYMNOVA and those of a Japanese maker, Senoh, which their gymnasts usually use in their home gyms.

Take the springboard.

(How do they call it in English? In Japan, it's called "Reuther board." The same?)

You can see a big difference with a glance.

The red one is Senoh's, and the grey one GYMNOVA's.

Those springs are arranged very differently from each other.

It's not only the springboard.

Each bar of GYMNOVA's p-bars is 1 cm wider in diameter than Senoh's.

Tomita said that those and other differences could affect gymnasts' performance very badly.

But if they want to achieve good results in international competitions, they have to adjust themselves to such differences as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, this time they did it successfully, though, according to Number, Uchimura's performance on p-bars in the AA final was affected by those differences.

During the AA final, Tomita was seen in the stands, cheering (?) for Uchimura and Tanaka with Kashima and other Japanese staff.

HTTK

He still keeps that sphinx-like expression . . .lol.

Isao Yoneda was also there as a commentator.

I think it's great that all of the Athen's members who retired last year decided to remain in the sport.

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