25 Aug Iori Yamaki placed 3rd in the 1A division of the World Yo-yo Contest!

Team Yoyorecreation member Iori Yamaki, achieved 3rd place in the 1A division of the 1A division of the World Yo-yo Contest held in Tokyo from the 13th – 16th of August.

As the current Asia Champion, Iori entered the finals of the competition full of confidence and with his eyes on the title. For his freestyle song he chose a fast paced track, and he successfully hit speedy combos, horizontals and bangers in quick succession.
Despite choosing to perform some of his hardest tricks, in a highly dense freestyle, Iori managed to keep his negative scores within single digits – a very impressive feat. It was certainly his best performance this year.
Although he was just 1 small step short of taking the title, he certainly performed a world-class routine and proved himself worthy of his high reputation.

Yuskuke Otsuka came in at a very respectable 5th place.
As some readers may be aware, Yusuke’s had a do-over due to his name being called early before the end of his routine. Yusuke showed incredible mental strength despite these circumstances and shone on stage twice.
Freestyling to relaxed music, Yusuke performed in his signature style – exhibiting well thought out tricks in a clean and elegant way. He really captured the hearts of the audience, and had very few mistakes to boot.

Akitoshi Tokubuchi placed in at 9th!
Akitoshi put on a fantastic, crowd-moving performance which was a culmination of the routines he has been performing since last years Japan Nationals. Akitoshi – a player who’s goal is always to perfectly harmonise with his freestyle music – presented on stage a routine which no doubt will be remembered for years to come, and recorded his best result so far at a world contest.

Ahmad Kharisma placed 14th
Ahmad came stepped onto the stage with the goal of taking the title with his unmatched, cutting edge technical skills. Despite falling short of that goal this year, he showed some excellent unique tricks on stage.

In 16th place came Jakub Dekan.
Jakub progressed to the finals showing real grit and determination as European champion. His freestyle was superbly clean and his tricks were tightly executed.

Ryota Ogi placed 18th.
Performing some fantastic rail-type combos and dynamic bangers, Ryota put on a great performance demonstrating his amazing technical ability and unmatched prowess in horizontal play. It was the kind of freestyle we always love seeing from Ryota.