アメリカの友達に興味を持ってもらうように，日本の新体操大会を英語でレポート．

I went to an interesting invitational competition for young rhythmic gymnasts in Tokyo, Japan, as a reporter! It is the 11th SASAKI Cup Youth Championships, held on June 14-16, 2013.

Gymnasts only from Japan were competing this year, but I was told that foreign gymnasts can also attend through a request from the gymnastics organization in each nation. I guess this is not known. This is why I am reporting.

The competition was at a huge gym (Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium) that is used for official international competitions in the center of Tokyo. It was well organized with a lot of judges and audience.

I am actually interested in competing next year, if possible, so I am curious if my friends in the US (and gymnasts across world!) may also be interested.

Structure
The gymnasts who can attend depend on her birth date that defines the school grade in Japanese. This year, gymnasts who were born between April 1, 1995 and April 2, 1999 were able to attend. Next year, gymnasts who were born between April 1, 1996 and April 2, 2000 will be able to attend.

About 350 gymnasts competed in the Qualifiers, but only the top 30 could go up to the Finals. FIG Code of Points was used, but Juniors and Seniors were all mixed in their ranking. On the first day, the gymnasts performed only Hoop and Ribbon in the Qualifiers. The top 30 in the Qualifiers performed Ball and Clubs in the Finals on their second day. The final ranking was determined by adding the all scores from the Qualifiers and Finals. The top 15 (Japanese) gymnasts in the Finals are qualified to the Japanese Nationals that will be held in fall.

Warm-up Room
There was a warm-up room near the main room. There was a specific time for who can go and warm up in the room. The room is bigger than the warm-up carpet we usually have in the US. There were four carpets with high ceiling. Three carpets were for women’s rhythmic gymnastics, and the other carpet was for the men’s. You can also play your music in the warm-up room, but only once. Although the ceiling and lights of the warm-up room and the main floor were different, it looked like a very great place for practice.

Competition Room
There were two carpets for the women’s rhythmic gymnastics, and one carpet for the men’s rhythmic gymnastics. There was also a section of a carpet behind the main carpet, or competition carpet. Different event was performed on each carpet. The first day was the Qualifiers, and the second day was the Final. Since there were many gymnasts competing, two gymnasts were performing their routine at the same time on different carpets for the Qualifiers. For the Final, the gymnasts went one at a time on each carpet. The competition room had a very high ceiling with bright lights. It was very organized and everything was on time.

Audience
This is a huge gym. There was plenty of room for audience. The seats were separated. There was a section for the gymnasts, and there was a section for the people that came to watch the competition. There was a lot of audience.

Scoring
There were many judges and officials who handled the judging and scoring. There was a big T.V. that showed the name of the gymnast and their club. On the top right there was a stopwatch that showed the amount of time the gymnast was doing their routine. I think this is helpful for the judges because they can tell if the gymnast is doing the eight seconds they need for the steps. For the scores, it showed the score of the difficulty and the execution. Then there was the final score where they added the difficulty and execution score.

There were mailbox envelopes for each club. I guess information like scores would be delivered here.

SASAKI sponsored the competition, and there was a SASAKI shop.

Top 3 gymnasts
1. Uzume Kawasaki (AEON) 53.450
2. Risano Fujioka (Miyabi) 53.250
3. Haruka Ikegaya (Anju) 53.150

There were Sasaki Cups displayed.

Next year, gymnasts who were born between April 1, 1996 and April 2, 2000 will be able to attend. Yes, I will be in this age range next year.