Mai Murakami left out of the Worlds team selection

Japanese Gymnastics Federation is known for selecting their teams for major competitions a billion years in advance. It is as if they saw Russia and USA with their “we won’t select the team until an hour before the competition” strategy and decided to do a complete opposite. There is a series of selection competitions held several months in advance and if an athlete peaks later in the year or is injured during the selection competition, they are out of the selection. In 2015, Mai Murakami finished only 8th at the NHK Cup and was only an alternate on the Worlds team because of that. She replaced an injured teammate at the last moment and ended up finishing 6th in the all-around final and having the best competition out of the Japanese WAG.

This year Murakami, a reigning World AA silver medalist, had a great start of the season, finishing third at the American Cup and second at the All-Japan Championships. However, she had to pull out of the NHK Cup in May due to back pain. The NHK Cup is part of the selection process for the World Championships. Four gymnasts were selected for the Worlds team at this competition: Asuka Teramoto, Hitomi Hatakeda, Aiko Sugihara, and Nagi Kajita. The fifth member is supposed to be selected at the National Event Championships, however, only those who competed at the NHK Cup and placed in the top 12 with the combined scores from the Cup and the All-Japan Championships are going to be considered for a team spot. Mai Murakami petitioned to be considered despite missing the NHK CUP. However, her petition has been declined, with the federation stating that they are not going to change the selection procedure retroactively. Japan is still very much in contention for qualifying a full team to Tokyo but leaving Murakami home will be a major loss for them.