The 2006 Junior Olympic Cup (a.k.a., JOC) took place in Atsugi in the Kanazawa prefecture on December 23-24, 2006.  Contrary to what its name could infer, the Junior Olympic Cup is not restricted to junior athletes.  This annual competition traditionally gathers most of the best Japanese senior and junior athletes within one age group.  This competition is traditionally the last one of the year on the calendar.

In the men's, 2006 World Cup Final winner Yasuhiro Ueyama swiftly bounced back from his disappointing 4th place at the Asian Games held in Doha, Qatar, in mid-December.  Ueyama, who became this year the first male trampolinist in history to win 5 World Cups in a row, easily dominated the preliminaries of the Junior Olympic Cup, obtaining a score of 71.10 thanks to a 40.90 pt routine (15.50 pt tariff).  In the final, Ueyama was on a roll and delivered a routine that obtained 41.60 pts, this time stepping up his tariff to 16.20 pts. 

Asian Games bronze medalist Shunsuke Nagasaki (pictured on the right) took the silver medal, moving up two spots in the final.  In the final, Nagasaki, 19, who was the Junior Olympic Cup defending champion, performed his traditional 15.50 pt degree of difficulty and obtained a score of 40.60 pts thanks to a great execution.  Nagasaki had recently won the All-Japan Tournament Championship, and should be regarded as a serious contender on next year's World Cup series circuit if he is a regular at these competitions.  Manabu Yamaguchi took the bronze medal in Atsugi with a 40.10 pts routine.  His execution was solid (25.00 pts) and his degree of difficulty was competitive (15.10 pts), albeit a little lower than his rivals. 

Takashi Sakamoto, who had performed a 17.00 pt routine last year, stepped up his difficulty from 15.00 pts to 16.40 pts in the final.  However, his execution was not on par, and Sakamoto finished in 4th place with 39.00 pts.  Hideyasu Ishikawa took a good 5th place with 37.40 (15.00 pt tariff).  The talented Masaki Ito, who was in 2nd place after the preliminaries thanks to a 40.00 pt optional (15.10 pt routine), had a disappointing showing in the final as he crashed right after his first skill (a half out triffis pike).  2006 Indo Pacific Champion Tomoyuki Baba crashed in the preliminaries and finished 29th.  Japanese internationals Tetsuya Sotomura, Masaki Hitomi, Takayuki Kawanishi, and Daisuke Nakata did not compete in Atsugi. 

In the women's, 6-time Japanese Champion Haruka Hirota (pictured on the left) recorded a new win with ease.  Hirota outperformed her rivals, triumphing with 36.40 pts thanks to a nice execution and superior difficulty (12.00 pts).  Most of her rivals were very close to each other but not at the level of Hirota.  Yoko Seto took the silver medal with 34.60 pts, ahead of Natsumi Yamashita (34.30 pts - 3rd), who was followed by Kazuyo Minato (34.10 pts - 4th) and Naomi Nishioka (34.10 pts as well - 5th).  Youngster Sana Yamada finished 8th.  Mika Futagi crashed in the preliminaries and finished at the 39th place.   

Summary Results

The results below indicate the place in the final, followed by the first name and last name of the athlete, then the score in the final with the degree of difficulty performed the final, then the preliminary score, followed by the score of the optional in the preliminaries with its degree of difficulty and the place of the athlete after the preliminaries):

Men's
1. Yasuhiro Ueyama     41.60 (16.20)     71.10 (40.90-15.50) (1)
2. Shunsuke Nagasaki  40.60 (15.50)     68.80 (39.00-14.90) (4)
3. Manabu Yamaguchi  40.10 (15.10)     68.80 (39.50-15.10) (3)
4. Takashi Sakamoto   39.00 (16.40)     67.90 (38.70-15.00) (5)
5. Hideyasu Ishikawa   37.40 (15.00)     66.00 (38.20-15.20) (6)
6. Ryota Shimada        36.90 (12.70)     62.70 (36.00-12.70) (8)
7. Yuuta Yoshimura     35.60 (13.30)     62.30 (36.30-13.30) (9)
8. Kazuma Takahashi   16.30 (07.40)     65.10 (37.70-14.60) (7)
9. Masaki Ito              01.80 (01.80)     69.00 (40.00-15.10) (2)
10. Subaru Shintani     01.50 (01.50)     61.00 (33.70-10.50) (10)

Women's
1. Haruka Hirota          36.40 (12.00)     64.40 (36.00-12.00) (1)
2. Yoko Seto              34.60 (11.10)     60.50 (33.60-11.10) (2)
3. Natsumi Yamashita   34.30 (10.30)     59.00 (32.90-10.30) (7)
4. Kazuyo Minato         34.10 (10.00)     59.90 (34.20-10.00) (3)
5. Naomi Nishioka         34.10 (10.50)     59.60 (32.90-10.50) (5)
6. Naoko Nishida          33.40 (10.10)     59.90 (33.40-10.10) (4)
7. Haruka Nakata        33.00 (09.10)     57.70 (31.60-08.90) (10)
8. Sana Yamada          32.80 (10.00)     58.10 (32.80-10.00) (8)
9. Miyu Yoshimura        31.90 (09.10)     58.10 (32.40-09.10) (9)
10. Asami Fukuo          30.80 (09.00)     59.10 (33.10-10.30) (6)

Link to the detailed results

Link to many pictures