Trampolinists from China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Qatar, and Uzbekistan compete in Chiba, including 10 in the women's and 13 in the men's.  The top eight athletes, with a limit of two per country, could qualify for the final.  The women's final will be held on the 15th, whereas the men's final will be held on the 16th.

In the women's trampoline preliminaries, the four Chinese trampolinists, all born in 1994, were the favorites.  Despite their young age, Dong Yu (Shanxi), Zhang Ying (Shanghai), Liu Lingling (Fujian), and Wu Chuwen (Guangdong) all competed at the 2009 Chinese National Games, the equivalent of the Olympic Games at the Chinese scale.  Dong Yu took the 8th place there with a 14.20 pt routine kicking off with a half out triffis pike.  She was then followed by Zhang Ying (9th with a 12.50 pt tariff kicking off with a half out triffis tuck) and Liu Lingling (17th with a 13.30 pt tariff kicking off with a half triffis tuck.  Wu Chuwen then finished in 25th place thanks to a 13.70 pt tariff kicking off with a half out triffis tuck.  Wu suffered a scary crash in the team final but seemed to have fully recovered.

In the preliminaries Chiba, the female Chinese trampolinists found no match for their talent in the preliminaries as they claimed the top 3 spots, outscoring their closest rival by 5.80 pts to 3.40 pts.  The 1st place of these preliminaries was secured by rising star Dong Yu (CHN), who despite sharing the same last name and coming from the same Chinese province, is not related to World Champion Dong Dong (CHN).  In Chiba, Dong Yu relied on a sterling first routine (26.90 pts), as well as the best optional of the preliminaries (37.30 pts with 13.10 pt tariff kicking off with a half out triffis tuck).  Her optional featured great height and outstanding body positions.  She recovered nicely from a traveling on her 6th skill.  Overall, she scored 64.20 pts.  Her teammate Liu Lingling (CHN - pictured right) claimed the 2nd place of these preliminaries with 63.00 pts.  Liu Lingling delivered a brilliant optional (37.10 pts with a 13.30 pt tariff kicking off with a half out triffis tuck), but Dong Yu already had a 1.00 pt advantage after the first routine.  Liu Lingling's routine relied on nice height and clean body positions.  Unfortunately, she lost some precious tenths on skills 4-6-8-10 as she landed outside the rectangle in the middle of the bed.

Wu Chuwen (CHN - pictured left) came in 3rd place with 61.80 pts thanks to a strong optional (36.10 pts) that relied on the highest degree of difficulty of these preliminaries (13.70 pt tariff), while maintaining solid execution.  Wu Chuwen started very high.  The first half of her routine was very impressive, but she lost a few tenths on the last three skills as she struggled a little bit.  Since only two trampolinists per country can qualify for the final, Wu Chuwen will be limited to cheering for her teammates Dong Yu and Liu Lingling in the final.  Miyu Yoshimura (JPN) placed 4th in these preliminaries with 58.40 pts thanks to neat execution and decent difficulty.  She was followed by her teammates Chisato Doihata (JPN - 5th with 57.70 pts) and Misaki Nakai (JPN - 6th with 57.30 pts).  As only two trampolinists per country could qualify for the final, Doihata will compete in Monday's final, whereas Nakai will miss the final.  Asse Yegizkarayeva (KAZ - 7th with 56.20 pts) and Ekaterina Novikova (KAZ - 8th with 54.00 pts) claimed the last two qualifying spots for the final.  Mayo Otani (JPN) came in 9th place with 51.90 pts due to a very low degree of difficulty.  Zhang Ying (CHN) finished 10th with 48.30 pts.  Zhang competed the second best first routine (26.70 pts), just 0.20 pts off Dong Yu's.  Unfortunately, she failed to complete her optional that kicked off with a half out triffis tuck, crashing a little past the middle of the routine.  She lacked height on her 6th skill, and landed her 7th skill on the back on the spotting mat.

The men's competition was expected to also see a Chinese domination thanks to He Yuxiang (CHN), who won the 2009 Australian Youth Olympic Festival and placed 37th at the 2009 Chinese National Games with a 15.00 pt tariff, Ge Fei (CHN), 32nd at the Chinese National Games with a 15.40 pt tariff, Cheng Haopeng (CHN - pictured right), 45th at the Chinese National Games, and Huang Zhipeng (CHN), who claimed the silver medal at the 2009 Australian Youth Olympic Festival.  Unfortunately, Huang Zhipeng withdrew and was replaced less known Li Jin (CHN).  The main threat to the Chinese team was expected to be Takahiko Kato (JPN), who won the silver medal at the 2009 World Age Group Competition (WAGC) and the gold medal at the 2007 WAGC. 

The men's preliminaries in Chiba proved to be very similar to the women's preliminaries as the Chinese team claimed the top 3 places.  Cheng Haopeng (CHN) barely edged He Yuxiang (CHN - pictured left) by only 0.10 pts.  Cheng Haopeng, who is from the Tianjin province, had a solid first routine (27.20 pts), but he really made the difference in the second routine where he delivered a sterling performance mixing height, power, limited traveling, and difficulty (14.50 pts with a half out triffis tuck kick off and a miller straight conclusion).  His routine also featured solid execution even though his body positions right before landing could be slightly better.  Cheng Haopeng scored 39.00 pts for this optional, and 66.20 pts overall in these preliminaries.  He Yuxiang performed the best first routine in these preliminaries (27.70 pts) thanks to outstanding body positions.  He Yuxiang opted for an optional with lowered difficulty (13.70 pts also kicking off with a half out triffis tuck and concluding with a miller straight), relying instead on the best execution of all the optionals.  His routine was performed with good height, mastered traveling, and neat body positions.  However, he may have to bulk up his thin frame to be more comfortable in more difficult routines.  He Yuxiang, who is from the Guangxi province, scored 66.10 pts, good for the 2nd place of these preliminaries and a spot in the final.

Ge Fei (CHN - pictured right), who is one year younger than Cheng and He, claimed the 3rd place of these preliminaries with 64.10 pts.  Ge Fei lost some precious tenths over his teammates in the first routine, and could not make up the difference with his optional despite some higher difficulty (14.90 pts also kicking off with a half out triffis tuck).  Ge Fei scored 37.60 pts for a quality optional, but lost some precious tenths due to a little traveling and a little struggle on his last skill (miller straight).  Overall, he scored 64.10 pts.  As only two trampolinists per country could qualify for the final, Ge Fei, who is from the Anhui province, will be only a spectator of the final.  Despite all his past international achievements, Takahiko Kato (JPN) could not do better than a 4th place with 61.80 pts in these preliminaries.  Kato somewhat traveled in his first routine, which caused him to trail his Chinese rivals by a significant margin before the optional.  Kato performed a strong optional (36.50 pts with a 14.10 pt tariff), but could not catch up the top 3 Chinese trampolinists.  Kato was closely followed by Li Jin (CHN), who scored 61.40 pts and placed 5th.  Li Jin had a nice first routine (27.20 pts).  However, he crashed spectacularly on the last skill (miller straight rotating and twisting too slowly) of his optional causing him to have a lower difficulty than his rivals (11.90 pts despite beginning with a half out triffis tuck).  Like Ge Fei, Li Jin will miss the final.

Ginga Munetomo (JPN) qualified for the final thanks to a 6th place in these preliminaries with 60.10 pts.  In his optional, Munetomo chose to rely on high difficulty (14.50 pts) kicking off with a half out triffis tuck, but his execution marks were not the best as he crashed into the mat on his final vertical jump as he lowered too much his height on his final skill, which caused an unbalanced landing.  His routine was otherwise of nice quality.  Munetomo barely edged his teammates Jun Ishii (JPN - 7th with 60.00 pts) and Daiki Kishi (JPN - 8th with 59.90 pts) to qualify for the final.  Akzhol Zamanbekov (KAZ - 9th with 59.30 pts) qualified for the final thanks to a high difficulty optional (14.50 pt tariff kicking off with a half out triffis tuck).  Pavel Sitkin (UZB - 10th with 58.60 pts), Husanboy Jonibekov (UZB - 11th with 56.70 pts) and Abdulla Al-Homadi (QAT - 12th with 53.30 pts) also qualified for the final.  Anton Shalashov (KAZ) struggled in his first routine as he crashed on the mat on his 9th skill (a crash dive that traveled backwards), which caused him to place 12th in these preliminaries and miss the final.            

AcrobaticSports.com would like to thank FIG Trampoline Technical Committee President Horst Kunze (GER) and FIG Trampoline Technical Committee member Stephan Duchesne (CAN) for sending the detailed results. 

Link to the videos of the event (in the menu in the middle of the page, click on the second box from the top "大会動画ライブラリー")

Link to the official website with the official results