Japanese Team Announced.

The NHK cup concluded May 6th, as the final competition before the Japanese team was chosen for the Olympics. This competition is to Japan as the US Trials are to America. The winners of this competition were Hiroyuki Tomita for the men and Kyoko Oshima for the women. Some upgrades were leaked via the IG site, where it was announced that Koko Tsurumi, the highest placing woman in the all around in worlds last year, have added another layout to her front aerial, bhs, back layout combo. Kyoko Oshima, the winner for the first time since 2002, said;

"I'm proud of myself to attend the Olympics again and I'm very happy...We'll unite and our goal is to proceed to the team final."

The 2008 Olympic Teams are as followed;
Mens : Hiroyuki Tomita, Kohei Uchimura, Koki Sakamoto, Takehiro Kashima, Makoto Okiguchi, Takuyo Nakase.
Womens : Kyoko Oshima, Miki Uemura, Yu Minobe, Koko Tsurumi, Yuko Shintake, Mayu Kuroda

Favourites for the teams that did not make it include
-Hisashi Mizutori
-He Xuemei
-Keiko Mukumoto
-Momoko Ozawa

Overall, the mens team has the capabilities for the silver medal again, just like at Worlds last year. The women's team might be able to fight for a spot in team finals, as their balance beam and floor scores have significanlty sky-rocketed.