London Olympics 2012: a disappointing result

This past week, I watched more tv than I do in a whole year. From 5 o'clock to about 10 o'clock I was pretty much glued to the tv, following the live broadcast of the judo competition. I was very hopeful for the Japanese team. I was especially excited to watch Haruka Tachimoto (4th year at Tokai) and Riki Nakaya (a graduate from Tokai) compete in their first Olympics.

Note: Picture taken from Google images. I do not own this picture.

Unfortunately, the team did not do as well as expected. They only won 7 medals. Out of those 7 medals, only one gold (Matsumoto -57kg), 3 silver (Nakaya -73kg, Sugimoto +78kg, Hiraoka -66kg) and 3 bronze (Ebinuma -66kg, Nishiyama -90kg, Ueno -63kg). And many of the athletes lost in the second round, a big upset.

If it were Canada, 7 medals would be amazing. Just winning one medal is an amazing feat. But for Japan, it's not good enough. For Japan, as repeated many times by the Japanese judo athletes in interviews, there is only gold. Nothing else counts.

I'm not sure exactly what was missing or what went wrong. Is it simply that the other athletes were better? I don't think so. Was it the mental preparation? It's more likely a number of factors and they will surely be examined intensively by the Japanese judo coaches and managers in the months to come.

Tokai going to the Olympics

It's now official. Japan's Olympic judo team has now been selected. And Tokai is proud to have 2 of its members on the team:

Riki Nakaya (-73kg) : He's actually graduated from Tokai and has been recruited by the company ALSOK but Tokai will be cheering him on like crazy. He's currently ranked 2nd on the Internal Judo Federation (IJF) Ranking List.

(I do not own this photo)

Haruka Tachimoto (-70kg): Currently a 4th-year student at Tokai. She's not often present at our practices because she's off to the national training center or other clubs to practice. She was nominated captain of Tokai's women's judo team and is currently ranked 3rd in the world.

(I do not own this photo)

Good luck to both of them!

Judo in Japan: way ahead of the pack

Hey everyone, it's been a while since my last post. And I could be doing some homework right now but I wanted to post something to keep my readers hooked : P

Last Sunday, I went to the Nihon Budokan to watch a judo tournament. It was a special tournament because instead of the normal weight categories, there were none. It was kind of like an open category where anyone who wishes to participate (regardless of their weight) can fight. But for this tournament, you had to be selected, meaning you probably had to have a certain amount of points or produced certain results at other tournaments in order to take part in this one. Only men were allowed to participate (two weeks ago, the women had their own tournament) and most of them were over 100kg. So when one of them was thrown, it was quite spectacular.

The tournament site in itself is spectacular. Most places in Japan are pretty cramped but when it comes to judo tournaments, they have the infrastructure. Here's a panoramic picture taken with my camera:

In between the matches (there was only one fighting mat area), I either studied or braided the girls' hair. They seem to be quite amazed with my ability to french braid.

Changing the subject a bit, but still related to judo, the Olympics. With the Olympics approaching quickly, Japan is now deciding who they will be sending to represent their country. There are two girls from Tokai (two sisters, Haruka and Megumi Tachimoto) who have a good chance of going. There are also two or three boys from the men's team who have a good shot as well. It's interesting to compare Canada and Japan when it comes to judo. In Canada, we're lucky if someone even qualifies themselves to go to the Olympics. But in Japan, it's not the question of whether or not someone is qualified, but rather which one of their qualified athletes they decide to send. Because in each weight division, there are at least 2, 3 or more athletes that are qualified to go. In the next month, based on past and upcoming tournament results, the Olympic team will be decided. In addition, some Japanese athletes are better against other Japanese athletes, and some Japanese athletes fare better against foreigners. The latter tend to be preferred because the chosen athlete will be facing athletes from other countries.

I'm really looking forward to the Olympics this time, for a couple of reasons. 1) Judo is part of the summer Olympics 2) Compared to before, I know now many of the big names in judo, especially in my division, having either fought with them or watched them fight at tournaments 3) Athletes from Tokai will probably be fighting 4) I love watching sports, especially witnessing the winning athlete's or team's emotions as they have the best race of their life or accomplish their lifelong goal; it's just so inspiring.

There are now only 86 days left! Anybody else looking forward to the Olympics?