2024 Team Japan (WC/4CC/JWC)

[cohkaix]

Team Japan 2024 (to WC/4CC/JSC) as announced:

World Championships
Women - Kaori Sakamoto, Mone Chiba, Hana Yoshida
(Sub, in the order of - Mai Mihara, Rinka Watanabe, Rion Sumiyoshi )
Men - Shoma Uno, Yuma Kagiyama, Kao Miura
(Sub, in the order of - Sota Yamamoto, Shun Sato, Kazuki Tomono)
Pair - Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara, *Yuna Nagaoka/Sumitada Moriguchi
Dance - Misato Komatsubara/Tim Koleto [Update: Feb 5th]
(Sub - Utana Yoshida/Masaya Morita)
*TES minimum pending

Jr World Championships
Women - Mao Shimada, Rena Uezono, Ikura Kushida
(Sub, in the order of - Yo Takagi, Ayumi Shibayama)
Men - Shunsuke Nakamura, Rio Nakata, Haru Kakiuchi
(Sub, in the order of - Daiya Ebihara, Seigo Tauchi)

Pair - Sae Shimizu/Lucas Tsuyoshi Honda*
Dance - Sara Kishimoto/Atsuhiko Tamura
(Sub - Kaho Yamashita/Yuto Nagata* )
*TES minimum pending Both couples had cleared the TES minimum from Bavarian Open


4CC Championships
Women - Mone Chba, Mai Mihara, Rinka Watanabe
(Sub, in the order of - Hana Yoshida, Yuna Aoki, Rion Sumiyoshi )
Men - Yuma Kagiyama, Sota Yamamoto, Shun Sato
(Sub, in the order of - Kazuki Tomono, Tatsuya Tsuboi, Nozomu Yoshioka)
Pair - Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara
Dance - Misato KOMATSUBARA/Takeru Komatsubara, Azusa Tanaka/Shingo Nishiyama, Utana Yoshita/ Masaya Morita

Adding: the award of new-comers at Nationals
Man - Daiya Ebihara
Woman - Reno Uezono
(Congrats!)

*JSF will make the announcement on it's official website and social media account(s).
According to this: https://x.com/skatingjapan/status/1738804566551130337?s=20
- the releasing of the announcement should follow the end of the competitions, but the time is uncertain for now.

 

[figureskatingandrainbows]

The press conference with the teams will be held tomorrow, the 25th December, at 9:00 JST. It will be streamed on the FujiTV Sports Youtube channel.

 

[figureskatingandrainbows]

okay my predictions:
4CC: Miura/Kihara, AzuShin, KoKo, UtaMasa, Yuma, Shun, Kao, Mai, Rinka, Mako
Worlds: Sota, Shoma, Yuma, Miura/Kihara and Nagaoka/Moriguchi (pending TES mins), Kaori, Mone, Hana, KoKo
JWC: SaraAtsu, SaeLuca (if they can get their mins), Rio, Shunsuke, Haru/Tsudoi (if healthy), Mao, Rena, and Ayumi or Ami

 

[YuBluByMe]

My predictions. Singles only since pairs and ice dance are obvious.

Men
Worlds: Uno, Kagiyama, Yamamoto.

4CC: Miura, Sato, Tomono

Junior Worlds: Nakamura, Nakata, Sasaki

Ladies
Worlds: Sakamoto, Chiba, Yoshida

4CC: Mihara, Yoshida, Watanabe

Junior Worlds: Shimada, Uezono, Shibayama

 

[skim1001]

looks like the meeting is now done. somebody on X was waiting outside the conference room. anytime now

 

[figureskatingandrainbows]

Worlds:
Men: Shoma, Yuma, Kao
Women: Kaori, Hana, Mone
Pairs: RikuRyu, YunaSumi
Ice Dance: I believe it's TBD, no name is listed

 

[figureskatingandrainbows]

4CC:
Men: Sota, Yuma, Shun
Women: Mai, Rinka, Mone
Ice Dance: AzuShin, KoKo, UtaMasa
Pairs: RikuRyu

 

[skim1001]

4CC
Men: Yuma, Sota, Shun
Women: Mone, Mai, Rinka
Pairs: RikuRyu
Ice Dance: KoKo, UtaMasa, Azushin

 

[figureskatingandrainbows]

Junior Worlds:

Men: Shunsuke, Rio, Haru
Women: Ikura, Rena, Mao
Pairs: SaeLuca
Ice Dance: SaraAtsu, KahoYuto

 

[skim1001]

None for Kazuki, sadly. Maybe triglav/egna/CdP?

 

[cohkaix]

Worlds:
Men: Shoma, Yuma, Kao
Women: Kaori, Hana, Mone
Pairs: RikuRyu, YunaSumi
Ice Dance: I believe it's TBD, no name is listed

Yes, Ice dance team is 'TBD', the Japanese wording is 'to be kept' (such as pending for future decision?)

 

[YuBluByMe]

JFed got it right this time. (Heh, last year’s nasty gram worked.). I have no problems with the selections, but it does sting a little that Tomono ends up empty-handed.

 

[yume]

Kao instead of Sota and Ikura instead of Ayumi is surprising. Kao i can understand but not Ikura.
JWC selection is more and more confusing.

 

[cohkaix]

According to this post: https://x.com/fskating_Life/status/1738935143132549463?s=20

Shoma and Kaori both expressed their choices of NOT participating in 4CC.

So I was wondering about this as well: in the past, usually skaters can express their options for participation to certain competitions. Since JSF release the pre-selection list, I'm a bit confused about that part. Now it makes sense.

This will be my last post tonight. Off to rest now, after the long waiting of the final Team lists. And congratulations to skaters making it to the competitions (they wish for).

 

[rabidline]

Yosuke Takeuchi, the JSF Head/Director of Figure Skating Strengthening (?) has explained the reason why Kao Miura and Hana Yoshida was selected as the third member of the Worlds team:

"As for the selection of the third male and female singles representative for the World Championships, Mr. Takeuchi, Director of the Training Department, explained that Kao Miura and Hana Yoshida were chosen as they have high competitive ability based on their scores and rankings up to the first half of the season."

Source:

 

[YuBluByMe]

Kao instead of Sota and Ikura instead of Ayumi is surprising. Kao i can understand but not Ikura.
JWC selection is more and more confusing.

I get Kushida’s selection. She was consistent in the JGP, being just off the podium in both assignments and she was second at Junior Nationals. She didn’t make the free skate at Nationals, but Nationals placements shouldn’t hold that much weight for junior skaters anyway, which is something I complained very loudly about last year. Shibayama wouldn’t have been a bad choice, though and I thought they’ll go that route. Choosing Kushida, though, means Junior Nationals actually mean something.

I’m not too surprised at Miura over Yamomoto. Miura had a better overall season with higher scores than Yamomoto.

 

[yume]

I get Kushida’s selection. She was consistent in the JGP, being just off the podium in both assignments and she was second at Junior Nationals. She didn’t make the free skate at Nationals, but Nationals placements shouldn’t hold that much weight for junior skaters anyway, which is something I complained very loudly about last year. Shibayama wouldn’t have been a bad choice, though and I thought they’ll go that route. Choosing Kushida, though, means Junior Nationals actually mean something.

I’m not too surprised at Miura over Yamomoto. Miura had a better overall season with higher scores than Yamomoto.

If it's like that from now, i'm totally ok. I always thought that juniors spots should be decided on junior competitions, not senior nats. I'm surprised because these last 8 years, JSF repeatedly showed that senior nats have more weight than anything else. Many junior nats medalists were not sent to junior worlds. Instead, the highest finishers among juniors at senior nats were always sent. Worse, seniors young enough to compete at JWC were sent instead of skaters who competed as juniors all season. So i was fully expecting Ayumi to get the spot. Ikura getting it is a nice reward for her season though.

 

[figureskatingandrainbows]

Regaridng the ice dance spot for Worlds, they decided to postpone the decision due to a different team winning the RD, FD, and combined score. A meeting will be held prior to 4CC to discuss alternate selection criteria and whether or not to postpone the decision till after 4CC.

 

[Lamente Ariane]

Seems to me it’s very risky to send both Mone and Hana to Worlds when neither have proven consistent. Kaori can’t keep three spots by herself. Especially baffled by the decision not to send Hana to 4CC when she clearly needs a competition with a clean SP… maybe she’ll do a senior B I guess

 

[Dreamer57]

So sad for Kazuki missing out on an assignment! He skated absolutely lights out at nationals.

Junior Worlds:

Men: Shunsuke, Rio, Haru
Women: Ikura, Rena, Mao
Pairs: SaeLuca
Ice Dance: SaraAtsu

I'm quite optimistic about the fact that the fed is planning to send Sae & Lucas, Kaho & Yuto to an assignment to get minimums for junior worlds! Perhaps they are thinking about the future.

A little disappointed for Ayumi not getting junior worlds....if based on the early JGP season then I felt that Ami, who won both her events with good SB scores should have been in the mix for consideration.