09 Jun Yusuke Otsuka Cecomes the 2016 Japanese 1A National Champion
Yusuke Otsuka, a member of the Yoyorecreation team became the newly crowned Japanese 1A National Champion at the Japan National Yo-yo Contest held in Osaka on the 28th and 29th of May.
Although Yusuke used the same music he used to win his seed at the Central Japan Yo-yo Contest, the freestyle itself was at a higher level to suit the tougher level of competition of Japan Nationals. Yusuke made a conscious effort to add several brand new high difficulty tricks, and managed to pull off the freestyle with minimal mistakes. It was possibly one of Yusuke’s best freestyles to date.
With an impressive evaluation score, combined with near perfect technical and performance scores, Yusuke tallied in at 97.1 points. However, even with this lofty score, the title was determined by a very fine margin, where Yusuke only just edged ahead of last year’s champion Takeshi Matsuura.
Having finally won the Japanese national title, Yusuke has already turned his eyes to Worlds in Cleveland. We look forward to seeing how he fares in August.
Ryota Ogi placed in at 5th.
Year after year we’ve seen Ryota’s consistency improve, and this year he once again performed an admirable freestyle with very few mistakes.
Selecting some high difficulty horizontal combos and speed combos for the faster paced parts of his music, and choosing body tricks with larger movements in the more moody parts of the track, Ryota’s music use was certainly on point.
We are extremely pleased with Ryota matching his personal best (5th at Japan Nationals 2011) after having not competed in a major finals recently.
Hirotaka Akiba placed in at 7th.
His freestyle was a very entertaining one, packed full of his signature chopstick tricks.
Izuru Hasumi placed in at 8th.
After going through somewhat of a play-style overhaul recently, Izuru Hasumi’s freestyle was packed full of distinctive, high-level tricks. Even his final horizontal trick has been spiced up. We’re extremely pleased with the growth and progress of Izuru this year, and look forward to seeing him settle into his new style of play.
Tatsuya Fujisaka placed in at 10th
Although he missed out on a top placed because of a string of minor mistakes, his quality shone through as he hit his biggest tricks.
Masahiro Terada placed in at 11th.
Masahiro’s freestyle showcased a range of interesting Masahiro-like tricks, such as original body tricks and elegant slacks.