Sports Japan - 2013/03/17

Mar. 17, Sun.

All Japan Table Tennis Championships
[Focus]
1. All-Japan Table Tennis Championship 2013
The Japanese women won their first ever team silver at the London Olympic Games. The key players in that success were Ai Fukuhara and Kasumi Ishikawa. In January, they confronted each other in the final of the All-Japan Table Tennis Championship for the second year in a row. Fukuhara won last year. Her favored stroke is the backhand drive and she is absolutely top class in freely picking out the corners. Ishikawa is a southpaw with a fierce forehand. Ishikawa took early control by tenaciously attacking Fukuhara's weaker forehand. Hitting to the fore to shut down the back, Ishikawa surged in front, totting up the points with her own fine forehand and leading by 2 sets to 1 at the end of the 3rd set. The flow shifted, however, in the 4th, when a single, wonderful backhand restored Fukuhara's rhythm. Both players attacked resolutely to the finish but Fukuhara took the 4th set and retained the title she won last year.
2. Ai and Kasumi's Growth
Fukuhara has been playing table tennis since she was 3 and took part in both the Athens and Beijing Olympic Games but without winning any medals. Still struggling to reach the pinnacle, an event occurred which fired her resolve to transform herself. The place was the All-Japan Table Tennis Championship 2011. Eighth in the world, Fukuhara was the top-ranked Japanese player. Her semi-final opponent was 17-year-old Ishikawa. Fukuhara found herself forced back into defense by Ishikawa's powerful play and produced nothing herself. That was her first experience of losing to a younger opponent at this championship and it shocked her into realizing how complacent she had become about being Japan's number one. Ishikawa, too, had been drawn to table tennis from an early age. She won her longed for Japanese title at the age of 17 but her opponents then studied her play and the results gradually tailed off. The match which turned her around mentally came 2 months before the Olympics. She kicked a ball after winning a point and the point was awarded to her opponent instead for that unsporting conduct. That was the first time she had shed tears in a match. She desperately mastered her emotions, though, and battled back from behind to win. Fukuhara was watching. The Olympic medal was won by each driving the other to reach new heights.
[Science Lens]
T'ai Chi Ch'uan
The martial art of T'ai Chi is popular for its health benefits. We use a magic mirror to analyze the muscular movement in real time, revealing how a master combines attack and defense in a refined, seamless flow.
[Guest]
Jun Ikushima

Sports journalist. Besides Japanese sport, has covered NBA, MLB and other American sports over a long career. Many other sports, too, including Olympic coverage. Author of many books.

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