Tomita and Ishizaka win NHK Cup

Tomita wins NHK Cup 2006

The traditional Japanese 45th NHK Cup 2006 was held at the Event Hall at Makuhari Messe, in Chiba, about 40 minutes from Tokyo Station.
The total score of both the secondary trials and the NHK Cup will decide the World Championships team (Aarhus) and the Asian Games team (Doha).
The reigning world champion, Hiroyuki Tomita, won the NHK Cup with a very big margin.
Even with new routines for the new code, Manami Ishizaka was still the most stable and reliable gymnast. She won her fourth consecutive NHK Cup...!

Hiroyuki Tomita topped the all-around silver medalist from Melbourne (2005) Hisashi Mizutori by more than four points. Tomita and Mizutori will compete at the 2006 World Championships, to be held Oct. 14-22 in Aarhus, Denmark, and the Asian Games, to be held Dec. 2-6 in Doha, Qatar.

Manami Ishizaka (JPN)

Bronze medalist Takuya Nakase and Naoya Tsukahara, fourth, will also compete in Aarhus.
The top four men's gymnasts after the NHK Cup automatically qualified for the world championships, and the other two gymnasts qualified through a point system.
>> Men's detailed AA results
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On women's side Manami Ishizaka was still the most stable and reliable gymnast. She won her fourth consecutive NHK Cup! Her only mistake was a hand support on an acrobat element on beam on the second day.
The runner up was Miki Uemura, the national champion last year. She was not confident on her weak event, floor exercise (unstable landings on both days), but maintained the difficulty in her routines on uneven bars and beam according to the current code.

Mayu Kuroda

The champion of the 2006 Friendship Classic in the United States, Mayu Kuroda, finished third.
Her beautiful execution throughout the routine on uneven bars and beam was absolutely world class! Her routine on bars, on which she placed fourth in the 2005 World Championships, did not change very much; she only added a Ray after the overshoot to handstand on low bar.

>> Women's detailed AA results

2006 Japanese Team Selections:

MEN: World Championships Team:
Hiroyuki Tomita ; Hisashi Mizutori ; Takuya Nakase ; Naoya Tsukahara ; Eiichi Sekiguchi ; Takehito Mori.

MEN: Asian Games Team:
Hiroyuki Tomita ; Hisashi Mizutori ; Shun Kuwabara ; Ryosuke Baba ; Kenya Kobayashi ; Yuki Yoshimura.

WOMEN: World Championships=Asian Games Team
Manami Ishizaka ; Miki Uemura ; Mayu Kuroda ; Kyoko Oshima ; Ayaka Sahara ; Erika Mizoguchi.
Source: Jap, Gymn. Fed.