{"id":17031,"date":"2014-11-03T15:35:43","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T06:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/?p=17031"},"modified":"2016-10-11T15:46:26","modified_gmt":"2016-10-11T06:46:26","slug":"no-600-two-successive-all-japan-championships-in-his-specialty-the-vault-the-ace-of-the-gymnastics-club-aiming-for-the-winners-podium-in-team-competition-as-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/attention-en\/2014\/11\/03\/17031\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 600 Two successive All Japan championships in his specialty, the vault: The ace of the Gymnastics Club, aiming for the winner\u2019s podium in team competition as well"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Third Year, School of Sport Sciences
\nKeisuke Ogura
\n<\/strong>
\nAs just a third-year high school student, Keisuke Ogura was the champion of the vault in the individual events at the All Japan Gymnastics Competition Championships. Ogura had suddenly achieved first place and made a stunning debut during his first time on the major stage he had long looked forward to and in the event in which he had been confident he could not be beaten since elementary school when he first began gymnastics. Ogura left this same competition three years ago feeling disappointed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other participants screwed up; I was the only one who didn\u2019t. I believe I didn\u2019t win because of my abilities, but because I was lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Vaulting

Vaulting is a contest which involves taking an approach run, jumping off of a springboard, striking the vault with one\u2019s hand\u2019s, and flying through the air. In this brief moment, participants compete based on the difficulty of their artistry and techniques. Photo: Waseda Sports<\/p><\/div>\n

The following year in 2012, Ogura entered Waseda University and appeared in the All Japan Championships as a member of the Gymnastics Club. In addition to the heavy pressure of achieving two consecutive championships, an injury just prior to the competition left Ogura in far from perfect shape, resulting in second place. Ogura used this vexing defeat as a springboard for 2013. Once again Ogura was injured prior to the competition, but feeling relaxed because he was not trying to maintain a consecutive title, he was able to exhibit his full abilities and once again achieved first place. This year, with a successive championship in the balance, Ogura made a perfect performance at the All Japan Championships and stood at the top of the winner\u2019s podium again, a great difference from second place. \u201cAlthough there was just as much pressure as two years\u2019 ago, I just focused on having fun. I was even able to watch the performances of other participants and participated in a relaxed state.\u201d This satisfying achievement shows the significant growth Ogura has made since succumbing to the pressure of two years ago.<\/p>\n

\"Ogura

Ogura striking a victorious pose after completing his performance in the individual events at the All Japan Student Championships.<\/p><\/div>\n

Ogura boasts the strongest vault abilities in Japan, and there are high expectations for him in global competitions such as the Olympics, but Ogura himself is humble, stating that such things are still far away. Only around seven names are elected to be members of international competitions, and one must have strong all-around individual abilities (competing with combined points in six events: Floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, and horizontal bar).\u00a0 Although Ogura\u2019s rank has risen each year, he was 23rd at this year\u2019s All Japan Student Championships. Even though Ogura has already been elected a U21 Japan representative, he is of course still not satisfied. Although in recent years there has been a trend toward the proactive election of specialists in each event, it is necessary to clear a high reference point in international competitions and Ogura has yet to achieve such scores. \u201cThe vault in particular is an event where there is a big difference with the world\u2019s top competitors. That\u2019s why I won\u2019t have a chance without improving in other events.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The

The men\u2019s team banded together as one, placing 4th and scoring a new all-time high record for Waseda University with a combined score of 429.250.<\/p><\/div>\n

In gymnastics, not only the individual events but also team competition is gaining attention. As teams compete on the total combined points based on the individual points of members elected from the team, members must meet a high standard in all six events. Waseda placed 4th in this year\u2019s Japan Student Championships, and next year\u2019s goal is to place 3rd or higher. In order to achieve this goal, it is essential to improve abilities in all events.<\/p>\n

\"Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a sport which is heavy on the body; scrupulous care before and after practices is essential.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019m putting a lot of effort into training in the horizontal bar, which I\u2019m particularly poor at, but honestly, even now I find doing the big techniques to be scary. But I feel that the more I practice, the better I get, so I\u2019m still having fun. Because I\u2019ve enjoyed and been good at the vault since childhood, I don\u2019t know what I can work on to get better now, so it\u2019s difficult sometimes. But I don\u2019t want to have any regrets, so all I can do is try my best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aiming for three consecutive All Japan Championships wins, Ogura continues to advance towards the next stage. In order to open the door to the still-distant global stage, Ogura will continue to polish his techniques with daily practice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

————————————————————–<\/p>\n

\u25a0Keisuke\u3000Ogura\u3000\u3000Originally from Chiba, Keisuke Ogura graduated from Narashino City Senior High School. Although he often spends his two days off per week relaxing, Ogura also likes to eat sweets and go out for them. He particularly likes the pancakes and parfaits at Tully\u2019s Coffee.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Third Year, School of Sport Sciences Keisuke Ogura As just a third-year high school student, Keisuke Ogura was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3614,"featured_media":17033,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[214,245],"class_list":["post-17031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-attention-en","tag-people-en","tag-news-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3614"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17031"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17038,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17031\/revisions\/17038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}