30 Mar Naoto Okada Wins Double at EYYC 2016!
Team Yoyorecreation member Naoto Okada performed two of the best freestyles of EYYC2016 which was held on the 19th and 20th of March 2016 in Prague, Czech Republic.
Having recently started residing in Europe to further his career as a professional performance artist, the multiple-time World Champion took home the European 4A title for the first time with a freestyle worthy of his reputation both as a yo-yo champion but also as a performance artist.
Not content with limiting himself to 4A, Naoto wowed Europe with a rare 2A freestyle – showing not only that his performance skills and crowd awareness translate across the divisions, but also showing off his lesser-known ability as an all-round yo-yo player.
Jakub Dekan was defending his European 1A title having won in 2015 with many anticipating a second consecutive title. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be with the youngster having to settle for 3rd place. Despite Jakub’s well-known clean and precise style of play shining through throughout the freestyle, two restarts from mistakes in his horizontal combos added to a series of other minor misses let him down on the day.
Finally, representing Japan in the Open Division, Izuru Hasumi took home 3rd place with a fantastic freestyle! Izuru masterfully adjusted his play-style to the mood of the music throughout the freestyle, choosing more subtle technical tricks for more serene parts of the track, and then jumping up to 5th gear with horizontal combos in the more intense periods of his music. It is clear that Izuru has been putting in some hard work since the East Japan-A Regional contest where he won.