OKADA AND HOKAZONO WIN JAPAN CHAMPIONSHIP, SETTING THEIR WAY TOWARDS A MEDAL AT THE OLYMPICS

The “last race” for the Gold and Silver fleets was cancelled as the weak offshore breeze in the morning faded out. Results for all teams except the top 10 boats were finalized according to their overall points up to yesterday. Sea breeze started coming in before noon and the top 10 boats sailed the two medal races.

It marked the first time to hold two medal races in which the points are doubled. This meant that lead within 36 points could be overturned and a heated competition was expected.

The pair of Naoki Ichino and Kotaro Matuo made the most of this opportunity. Although it was the first time for them to pair up, they showed amazing combination skills and finished first in both of the races today. 

The pair of Ichino and Matuo showed a well-balanced combination

The pair of Keiju Okada and Junpei Hokazono won the championship title, and although they sometimes seemed to struggle they did not miss opportunities to move up and finished third and second, demonstrating their ability.
“We were able to cope with the variety of wind conditions, which evidenced progress of our training”. (Okada & Hokazono pair)

The pair of Doi and Kimura, who had been showing consistent performance throughout the competition, crumbled in the medal race, finishing 5th and 6th, to rank 3rd overall.

The fourth-ranked pair of Takayama and Fuyuka Morita narrowly missed the podium by two points from the Doi-Kimura pair, but they are expected to play an active role towards the 2024 Olympics in Paris, when the 470 class will be sailed as a mixed class.

Ai Yoshida and Miho Yoshioka pair came fifth overall and won the Women's title. The women's team of Hikaru Kougami and Yuria Sakai came in second place, followed by the women's team of Naru Ito and Moe Wada in third place.

 
Yoshida and Yoshioka said: "We were able to race focused and we are getting back the feel of racing. We hope to keep our motivation up and be able to reach our peak at the Olympics.

It was impressive to see the top sailors at this event taking a positive approach to the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, taking it as an opportunity to improve performance. It will be exciting to see how they compete at the World Championships scheduled next March and at the Olympics.
The event also proved that racing events can be managed under the COVID situation, taking advantage of digital tools for communication between competitors and the organizing committee, and conducting ceremonies remotely.

Final Results

Overall results: https://bit.ly/2KblOtm

Official website for the tournament: https://www.alljpn470.org/

Event Highlights: https://www.alljpn470.org/video