The 32nd Japanese High School Championship (a.k.a., All-Japan Inter-High School Championship) took place in the city of Sukagawa located in the Fukushima prefecture on August 3-5, 2007.

This edition of the All-Japan Inter-High School Championship was the 32nd, which constitutes possibly the longest running high school trampoline competition in the world.  132 athletes competed (77 girls adn 55 boys).  The trampolinists came from 60 programs, actually 6-7 high schools, and the rest from private clubs that had athletes represent the high schools they attned.  One foreign high school was represented: Roosevelt High School in Honolulu, Hawaii.  Athletes had qualified to the meet by being able to perform a fairly simple high school compulsory routine.  This qualification process caused athletes from very different levels to compete within one category.  Discussions were conducted about splitting the competition into two divisions next year.  

Some of the top Japanese prospects competed. 

The scores from the preliminaries were carried over to the finals.  The top 16 athletes from the preliminaries entered the final.

Traveling on the trampoline bed during routines in Japan competitions appears to be probably sanctioned more heavily than in competitions outside Japan.  Judges seemed to deduct for travel within the box, and deduct 0.20 pts or 0.30 pts additional for travel outside the box.  The high school compulsory appeared also very stylized with one-arm airplanes (1/2 turn to front drop), arch jumps (instead of straight), and seat drops that lean back.  It also seemed that deductions may have been applied for landing with arms up after pressing on tuck/straddle/pike jumps.      

In the men's, the level was very high.  The athletes proved the depth of Japan's new generation that will very likely be very competitive at the 2007 World Age Group Competition (WAGC) in Quebec City.  Rising star Subaru Shintani, who was a finalist at the 2005 WAGC and the winner of the 2007 Australia Youth Olympic Festival, had to fight hard to win the gold medal.  Shintani had the lead after the preliminaries with 62.70 pts, and competed last in the final.  In the final, the pupil from Osaka delivered a strong routine that obtained 37.60 pts with his new 13.70 pt tariff, which proved to be sufficient to secure the gold medal with 100.30 pts.  Shintani is coached by Takeshi Ueyama, who is also 2006 World Cup Final winner Yasuhiro Ueyama's coach and father.    Kazuma Takahashi took the silver medal with 100.00 pts, just 0.30 pts off Shintani.  Takahashi struggled in his first  routine, but delivered the best optionals of the preliminaries (37.10 pts) and the finals (38.10 pts), both with a 14.60 pt tariff, the highest of the whole competition.  As a result, Takahashi moved up 2 spots in the final. 

The bronze medal went to Ryota Shimada (pictured on the left), who obtained 99.50 pts.  Shimada really stepped up to the plate in the final where he had qualified only in 5th place.  Shimada obtained 38.10 pts for his routine performed in the final (13.50 pt tariff).  Yuta Yoshimura came in 4th with 99.30 pts, just 0.20 pts behind Shimada.  Yoshimura, who was 3rd before the final, obtained 36.90 pts in the final with a 13.70 pt tariff.  Kentarou Tsuji significantly reduced his tariff in the final (down from 13.10 pts) and finished in 5th place with 93.20 pts.  He was followed by Yuta Otonari, Ken Goto, and Tatsuro Asano.  The major disappointment of the final came from the very promising Katsufumi Tasaki (pictured on the right), who was in 2nd place before the final, tied at 62.70 pts with Shintani.  Tasaki, who had obtained 36.30 pts for his optional in the preliminaries (13.30 pt tariff) crashed at the beginning of his routine and ended up in 15th place.  Tasaki, who was a finalist at the 2005 WAGC, fared better in synchronized trampoline where he took the gold medal paired with Yuta Yoshimura with a large margin over the other pairs (128.50 pts with a 12.70 pt tariff). 

In the women's, Japanese international Kazuyo Minato (pictured on the left), who will be a starter on Japan's senior team at the 2007 World Championships, cruised through the whole competition to win the gold with a more than 6.00 pt margin.  Minato, who had the lead after the preliminaries with 62.30 pts, obtained 35.10 pts in the final (10.00 pt tariff), for a grand total of 97.40 pts.  U.S. rising star Nani Vercruyssen (pictured on the right) from Hawaii Academy, who was competing as guest in Sukagawa, obtained the second highest score of the competition with 91.10 pts.  Vercruyssen, who appears in the process of recovering from the confusion of certain forward skills, performed a 12.20 pt tariff.  The silver medal went to Misaki Kurata with 90.40 pts, who managed to hold on to her medal in the final.  Makiko Matsudo took the bronze medal with 89.50 pts.  She was followed by Yuka Ito, Haruna Yamashita, Miki Imai, Yurie Ojima, and Ai Takayama, who appeared fairly close from one another.  In synchronized trampoline, Ai Takayama and Miki Imai prevailed with 120.20 pts (7.80 pt tariff).

AcrobaticSports.com would like to thank Dr. Max Vercruyssen, director and coach at Hawaii Academy, for sending detailed information about the meet.    

Summary results (with the degree of difficulty in parenthesis and the score of the routine performed in the final)

Men
1. Subaru Shintani     100.30 pts (13.70 pts - 37.60 pts)
2. Kazuma Takahashi  100.00 pts (14.60 pts - 38.10 pts)
3. Ryota Shimada        99.50 pts (13.50 pts - 38.10 pts)
4. Yuta Yoshimura       99.30 pts (13.70 pts - 36.90 pts)
5. Kentarou Tsuji         93.20 pts (13.10 pts - 32.50 pts)
6. Yuta Otonari           92.80 pts (11.80 pts - 34.50 pts)
7. Ken Goto                91.70 pts (12.90 pts - 33.40 pts)
8. Tatsuro Asano         91.60 pts (11.20 pts - 34.30 pts)
15. Katsufumi Tasaki    68.30 pts (13.30 pts - 05.60 pts)

Women
1. Kazuyo Minato         97.40 pts (10.00 pts - 35.10 pts)
(2. Nani Vercruyssen    91.10 pts (12.20 pts - 33.70 pts)
2. Misaki Kurata           90.40 pts (08.40 pts - 32.30 pts)
3. Makiko Matsuda       89.50 pts (09.10 pts - 31.70 pts)
4. Yuka Ito                 88.60 pts (09.20 pts - 31.50 pts)
5. Haruna Yamashita     88.00 pts (09.10 pts - 31.30 pts)
6. Miki Imai                 87.90 pts (08.00 pts - 31.30 pts)
7. Yurie Ojima             87.60 pts (08.70 pts - 31.20 pts)
8. Ai Takayama           87.60 pts (08.20 pts - 30.80 pts)

Link to the detailed results