Olympic experience had profound impact on Omiya's Higashi

SAITAMA — Escaping relegation would be the only thing on the mind of most teams sitting one place above the drop zone with just eight matches left to play, but Omiya Ardija midfielder Keigo Higashi has grander ambitions for his struggling side than mere survival.

Omiya heads into Saturday's game against Yokohama F. Marinos 15th in the J. League first-division table, two points above Gamba Osaka and four ahead of Albirex Niigata in the race to avoid joining relegation near-certainties Consadole Sapporo in J2 next season.

The story is a familiar one for Ardija, having found progress hard to come by since debuting in the top flight in 2005. The team's chances of a first-ever top-half finish this year looked more remote than ever during an August spent mostly in the bottom three, but now after two straight wins in a division so tight that only 12 points separate the Saitama side from fourth-place Jubilo Iwata, Higashi is thinking big.

"We've been training well and there is a good atmosphere in the team," the 22-year-old said at the club's training ground earlier this week. "We play Marinos on Saturday, and if we can win that game then the atmosphere will be even better.

"We still have eight games left to play, and I think we are capable of moving further up the table. This club has been involved in relegation battles in the past, but we have to put that behind us now. If we can do that and work hard in training, we can move in the right direction. I believe we can do it."

Omiya's cause has certainly been helped by a mid-season recruitment drive from Slovenia, with manager Zdenko Verdenik replacing Jun Suzuki and World Cup strikers Milivoje Novakovic and Zlatan Ljubijankic arriving to reinforce the attack.

Novakovic proved his quality with a hat trick in last Saturday's 5-0 demolition of Consadole, and Higashi is excited about the team's prospects.

"Novakovic and Ljubijankic are both players with a huge amount of potential, and I think they can have a big influence on our team," he said. "Verdenik is a very passionate manager who likes a passing style of football. We were able to play some good stuff against Sapporo and show what we could do, and he's made us a much more penetrative team.

"Things haven't changed so much since the previous manager left, but Japanese managers and foreign managers have different ways of doing things. At first we weren't able to get the results we were looking for and it took some time, but now everyone understands the kind of football he wants us to play. We have improved a lot."

If Higashi was unable to get to grips with his new manager's methods earlier, however, his commitments elsewhere this summer gave him a valid excuse. The midfielder started all but one of Japan's six games at the London Olympics, wearing his country's No. 10 shirt and setting the tone with his hard running as the team narrowly failed to lay its hands on a first medal since 1968.

"It was a great experience for me, and hopefully one that I can use for Omiya in the J. League," Higashi said of Japan's Olympic campaign. "Wearing the No. 10 was a big responsibility, but it was one that I was happy to take on.

"We weren't able to win a medal, but we fought together as a team and there was a great atmosphere in the squad. As a football player that was something that gave me a lot of pleasure."

Going home empty-handed was a bitter disappointment after reaching the last four on the strength of memorable wins over Spain, Morocco and Egypt, but Higashi accepts that the team fell short when the going got tough against Mexico in the semifinals and South Korea in the bronze-medal match.

"I think the difference between winning a medal and not winning a medal was in the physical and mental aspects of our game," he said. "When we got to the final stages and it really got down to business, I could feel the difference between us and the other teams."

Now the onus is on Higashi to step up to the full national side, and with Olympic teammates Hiroshi Kiyotake, Hiroki Sakai and Gotoku Sakai having all appeared for Alberto Zaccheroni's team, the example has been set.

Higashi also intends to follow that trio in moving to a European club at some point in the future, but for the time being he has his hands full at Ardija.

"I want to play on the big stage and show what I can do as well," he said. "But first I have to make my mark at Omiya and work hard to be called up to the national team.

"We still have eight games left this season, and I want to make a contribution and help the team win."

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Yoshida returns focus to Olympic three-peat after rare defeat

Unexpected: Russia's Valeria Zholobova celebrates after ending Saori Yoshida's 58-match winning streak on Sunday in the 55-kg final at the World Cup meet in Tokyo. AFP-JIJI

Incredibly long winning streaks come as natural to Saori Yoshida as enjoying ice cream cones on hot summer days for the rest of us.

For the record, freestyle wrestler Yoshida's 58-match winning streak came to an end on Sunday at the World Cup meet in Tokyo. Russia's Valeria Zholobova, just 19 years old, was the better grappler in their match. For anyone else, 58 straight wins would seem like an out-of-this-world accomplishment. For Yoshida, however, the bar is set so high, that a loss, any loss, is a jaw-dropping, stop-the-presses shocker.

"Going to London will mean nothing if I don't three-peat, so I have to fix the problems which need addressing," Yoshida was quoted as saying by Kyodo News after Sunday's defeat at Yoyogi National Gymnasium.

She is, after all, a two-time gold medalist, and one of Japan's biggest medal hopefuls for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Nobody likes to lose, but who says this is a bad time for Yodida to taste defeat? In fact, it probably came at the best possible time. It may even lessen the pressure of having to keep the streak alive in order to attain gold; at least those were my initial thoughts on Sunday after watching a replay of the Yoshida-Zholobova match on TV.

The 29-year-old Mie Prefecture native probably didn't need any additional motivation to be fired up for her third Olympics, but this will surely push her to be more focused on her techniques and conditioning in the weeks before the competition commences in London.

And no one can excuse her of fearing the spotlight, as evidenced by her decade of dominance in national (10 consecutive titles) and international (victories at nine straight world championship since 2002) competitions.

You can argue that Yoshida doesn't face the wealth of talent that athletes must contend with in other sports, but that doesn't cheapen her accomplishment. The sport may not appear to have as many elite-level competitors as, say, figure skating or tennis, but there are skilled practitioners throughout the world who have what it takes for greatness.

In addition, she has been so good for so long that any loss is a major headline. Which takes us back to January 2008, when Yoshida's 119-match winning streak ended against American Marcie Van Dusen in Taiyuan, China.

It wasn't the end of the world, of course.

"It is a big shock to lose my first match at an international meet," she told reporters after the match. "I realize I have to train even harder."

That loss, too, arguably came at the right time. Yoshida diligently prepared for the Beijing Games and, as stated above, collected another gold medal.

Don't expect Sunday's setback to decrease Yoshida's workload or preparations for London. Instead, expect tackling, as noted by AFP-Jiji in its story after Yoshida's Sunday defeat, to be the key area of emphasis she works on with her coach, Kazuhito Sakae.

"After losing, I really struggled for six months to get back on my feet, and today I couldn't help but feel anxious," Yoshida was quoted as saying after winning the gold in 2008. "I went for two straight titles, but compared to Athens there was so much more built up inside me this time. I aim to three-peat in London in 2012."

As they say in Hollywood and beyond, the plot thickens.

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Fighter's Olympic omission sparks row

LONDON — The British Olympic Association is asking national taekwondo officials to explain their decision to omit top-ranked fighter Aaron Cook from the Olympic team.

Cook filed an appeal Monday with the BOA, describing the decision to leave him off the team as "incredible" and "ironic." He is ranked No.1 in the world in the 80-kg division and has won more major competitions than any other British athlete in his weight category.

But he has also irked taekwondo officials by abandoning the national British training academy last year. Since going solo, the 21-year-old Cook has won a string of major tournaments, including the European championship title in his weight class earlier this month.

A four-person BOA panel heard the case Tuesday and asked for a meeting as soon as possible with the British taekwondo body to "seek further information and clarification" on the selection process.

The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, with a decision coming that day or soon after.

Cook described the move as "encouraging." "Thank you to the BOA," he said on Twitter. "The dream is still alive."

The British taekwondo body later released a statement acknowledging it had received a notification from the BOA.

"Competition for places has never been as strong as it is now within our sport and the challenges around selection reflect this," the statement said.

The BOA panel also asked for more information on the head-kick scoring system in taekwondo and how that affected selection. Taekwondo awards the most points for spinning head kicks — a style Cook is particularly known for.

The BOA also said it would seek information from the World Taekwondo Federation, the martial art's governing body.

In a statement on Monday, Cook complained he had been unfairly left off the team, even after receiving support from Gary Hall, the British team's performance director.

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Japan edges Cuba in Olympic women's volleyball qualifier

Japan scraped out its fourth win of the Women's 2012 World Olympic qualification tournament at Tokyo Gymnasium on Friday, needing five sets to beat Cuba.

Perfect timing: Japan's Saori Sakoda spikes the ball against Cuba's Yanelis Santos in a FIVB Olympic Volleyball world qualifier on Friday in Tokyo. Japan defeated the three-time world champions in five sets. KYODO

The hosts, chasing one of the final four berths at the London Olympics available here, beat three-time Olympic champion Cuba 25-23, 18-25, 25-16, 23-25, 17-15. The five-set win earned Japan two points in the standings, moving it into second place on 11, four points back of Russia in the eight-team, round-robin tournament.

It was power against power as the sides blasted away in the first five-set match of the tournament. Saori Sakoda and Saori Kimura spearheaded the Japan attack with 20 and 19 points, respectively. Yukiko Ebata contributed 10 tallies.

It was Sakoda's late-match heroics that carried Japan to the stirring victory this night as she dominated in the fourth and fifth.

Yoana Palacios had a match-high 22 points in the loss. Wilma Salas added 19 for Cuba, while Rosana Giel and Yanelis Santos finished with 17 and 16.

Cuba made 40 unforced errors compared to only 11 by Japan. The defeated side held the advantage in blocks 16-4 and both sides scored via eight aces.

"I was very happy to win," Sakoda said. "We want to do the same thing again tomorrow. Wearing the Japan uniform means always having to be prepared. My job is to chance the flow and mood of the game when I come in. I was able to do it tonight."

Added Kimura: "I was determined to destroy their attack with a strong serve."

The Russians, who take on Japan on Saturday, defeated Serbia 25-18, 25-11, 14-25, 25-22 as the Serbs became the first team in the tournament to take a set off Russia.

Thailand improved to nine points with a 25-19, 25-19, 25-20 victory over Peru, while South Korea joined the Thais at nine with a 25-8, 25-12, 25-18 win over winless Taiwan.

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Baku, Doha in danger of missing Olympic cut

QUEBEC CITY — The field of candidates for the 2020 Summer Olympics could be reduced from five to three, with Doha and Baku in danger of missing the cut.

Tokyo, Istanbul and Madrid look certain to make the list when the International Olympic Committee executive board announces the group of finalists on Wednesday evening in Quebec City.

Whether the IOC keeps all five cities or pares the list to four or three remains the issue, a tricky choice at a time of global economic and political uncertainty.

"Risk is part of the assessment — political risk, economic risk," IOC board member Denis Oswald said Tuesday.

Madrid is bidding for a third consecutive time, Tokyo a second time in a row and Istanbul a fifth time overall.

Doha, capital of the Gulf state of Qatar, and Baku, capital of the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, are back after failing to make the shortlist for the 2016 Games and face the most scrutiny again.

The cities selected Wednesday will go forward to the final phase, a 17-month race that will end with a secret vote by the full IOC in Buenos Aires in September 2013.

The 15-member executive board, headed by IOC president Jacques Rogge, will choose the finalists after examining a technical evaluation report compiled by a panel of Olympic experts.

IOC vice president Thomas Bach called it "the most difficult decision we have ever had to take with regard to a shortlist."

The dynamics of the race changed dramatically when Rome, considered a potential 2020 favorite, pulled out of the bidding in February after the Italian government declined to provide financial guarantees at a time of economic austerity.

If there is a cut Wednesday, Baku is expected to be eliminated first. If the IOC decides to keep four cities, Doha would be safe. If it's three finalists, Doha would likely be dropped.

Baku is seen as lacking in experience in hosting international sports events and officials believe it's too soon for the city to be considered a viable contender.

Qatar is already hosting the 2022 World Cup, but faces questions over the heat, the timing and other issues for the Olympics.

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Japan, Azerbaijan to vie for final Olympic women's field hockey berth

KAKAMIGAHARA — Japan and Azerbaijan will battle it out for a berth at the London Games after emerging as the two top teams in the final women's Olympic hockey qualifying tournament on Thursday.

The hosts beat Belarus 4-0, securing their place in Saturday's final, while a 2-2 draw with Chile was enough to send Azerbaijan through.

The Japanese women ended top of the table with an unbeaten four wins and a draw in the six-team round robin preliminary round.

Japan opened the scoring just three minutes into the match, with forward Kaori Fujio striking home from close range.

Midfielder Rika Komazawa and skipper Yukari Yamamoto added two more before Fujio scored her second goal in the 65th minute.

"We are determined to fight and clinch the ticket to the Olympics," said Yamamoto, while coach Zenjiro Yasuda said Belarus' defensive play was good preparation for the final.

The winner will take the 12th and final berth for the Olympics.

Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Britain, China, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, South Korea and the United States have already qualified.

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Olympic chiefs mull baby policy

London — Organizers of the 2012 London Olympics said Tuesday they would consider options for new mothers who want to bring their babies into venues, after some parents complained that they have to buy full-price tickets for their infants.

The London Organizing Committee made the statement after complaints flooded the British parenting website Mumsnet, with pregnant women who bought tickets for themselves — but not for their unborn children — wondering what they could do with babies who were breast-feeding. They argued that a months-old child would not be taking up a seat of its own.

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Asami stays on path for Olympic spot

World champion Haruna Asami took a big step Friday toward earning her place on Japan's London Olympic judo team, defeating rival Tomoko Fukumi in the 48-kg final of the Grand Slam Tokyo meet.

Asami scored an ippon victory over Fukumi with a leg trip in what is considered to be the most hotly contested weight class among Japanese judoka after Ryoko Tani retired last year with five Olympic medals, including two gold, and seven world titles.

Other first-day winners were Takumi Miyakawa (52-kg women's division), Hirofumi Yamamoto (60-kg men) and Tomofumi Takajo (66-kg men).

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Kuwaiti goal takes shine off Japan's winning Olympic start

London calling: Striker Yuya Osako (right) takes the plaudits after scoring in Japan's Olympic qualifying 3-1 win over Kuwait at Toyota Stadium on Sunday night. KYODO

TOYOTA, Aichi Pref. — Japan launched its 2012 Olympic qualifying campaign with a comfortable 3-1 victory over Kuwait but was left to rue an unnecessarily conceded goal to the Gulf visitors on Sunday night.

Hiroshi Kiyotake and Mizuki Hamada scored in the opening half for the under-22 national side at Toyota Stadium, and Yuya Osako added the third on the other side of halftime.

But substitute Jaber Jazea chiseled at Japan's lead shortly past the hour with what could turn out to be a crucial away goal for Maher Alshemmari's side.

The second leg in the home-and-away contest is on Thursday.

"That was disappointing," Japan coach Takashi Sekizuka said, referring to the Kuwaiti goal. "We held on to the ball for a lot longer than we should have, and they got us."

The two teams went into the interval with Japan leading by two, but the hosts should have been up by more given the way they dominated throughout the first half.

With the Kuwait defenders giving them plenty of room to operate, Japan could have — and should have — been ahead by twice as many had it exercised a little more accuracy in front of the goal.

Striker Kensuke Nagai started the game on the bench with a sprained left ankle yet Sekizuka never needed to call on the top scorer of last year's Asian Games.

Forward Yousef Nasser, a Kuwaiti player with full international experience, was about the only consistent threat the Japanese defense had to deal with all evening.

Kiyotake pushed the young Blue Samurai in front in the 18th minute with his maiden goal for the Olympic team, a diving header into the bottom corner from a Yusuke Higa cross.

Hamada doubled Japan's advantage after 37 minutes with a header of his own, nodding in a right-wing Kiyotake corner from the heart of the penalty area.

The second half was more of the same with Japan in control, and Osako made it 3-0 one minute past the hour off a Kuwaiti mistake, slotting home a through-ball from Ryohei Yamazaki.

But just when Japan looked like it was going to cruise, Kuwait pulled one back in the 68th minute through substitute Jazea, who pounced on a failed clearance with authority to close the gap.

The Japanese woke up after conceding and reasserted their dominance, but failed to stretch out their lead as they continued to waste opportunities.

Gosford, Australia — Striker Jason Hoffman scored twice as Australia beat Yemen 3-0 in the first match of a two-leg Olympic soccer qualifying tie on Sunday.

Mitch Nichols also scored to give Australia a buffer to take into the second leg of the series at Newcastle on Thursday.

Isaka Cernak and Nichols directed play from midfield and Hoffman provided a constant aerial threat for the strong Australia lineup that restricted Yemen to sporadic counterattacks.

Australia had several off-target shots before Hoffman headed home Sebastian Ryall's cross in the 14th minute. Nichols added the second from close range in the 67th minute and Hoffman netted the third in stoppage time.

In Seoul, South Korea defeated Jordan 3-1.

Midfielder Yoon Bit Garam scored the winner from the penalty spot in the 75th minute and Kim Dong Sub added a header 10 minutes later.

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Orimo still chasing Olympic dream

Forty-year-old star shooter Takehiko Orimo has achieved pretty much everything he could've possibly hoped for in his stellar career in the Japanese hoop scene.

Unfinished business: Takehiko Orimo hopes to realize his dream of one day playing at the Olympics. KAZ NAGATSUKA

But not everything. There is still one last piece of unfinished business: playing in the Olympics.

So in 2011, with a year to go to the London Games, Orimo is going about a tough but challenging task.

"We have the Olympic qualifier in September," Orimo said after a national team news conference on Tuesday. "I've never played in an Olympics and earning an Olympic berth is a fervent wish for the Japan Basketball League."

The last time the Japan men's team qualified was in 1976 in Montreal.

Orimo doesn't want to achieve the goal just to add more glory to his personal career profile — he also thinks it would have an enormous impact on the game in Japan.

"If we make the Olympics, I believe something will change in Japan's basketball," said Orimo, who played in two World Championships in 1998 and 2006.

Orimo, a guard/forward for the Hokkaido Basketball Club (formerly known as the Rera Kamuy Hokkaido) of the JBL, said the national team and its players had not pushed themselves hard enough to reach an Olympics until now.

For example, national team coach Thomas Wisman and the Japan Basketball Association have brought a new approach to the squad, calling up more players, including prospective collegians and high schoolers, and dividing the group into three categories. That is intended to create more competition inside the national squad and spur long-term development.

Completely agreeing with the idea, Orimo said it was something the national team was lacking in the past.

Orimo called the spots for the regular national team members "reserved seats," meaning that no matter how they did, their places were secure all the time.

"So there was really little competition inside the team," said Orimo, adding that he welcomes youngsters challenging for the top-team spots that the veteran players currently occupy.

Even under those kind of circumstances, Japan was still one of the top nations in Asia in the 20th century. But this past decade or so, other countries have had rapid rises and Japan eventually dropped out of the elite group.

Orimo thinks with regret about "what if", recalling his younger days on Team Japan.

"Had I possessed the mind set that I have now at that time, things might have been different," he said.

Playing for one of the two professional clubs in the JBL in Hokkaido, Orimo now has high quality professionalism. But he confesses that he only started to develop it when he moved to Hokkaido from a company-led club, Toyota Motors Alvark, at age 36.

"It was probably too late to know that," he said. "But also I was fortunate to realize that. So I feel like I owe Hokkaido and I am not going to play anywhere else but in Hokkaido."

And now Orimo strongly believes that a professional league would make other players feel the same way he does and that it would eventually help lift the level of the game in Japan — sooner rather than later.

"The league has changed its name, like to the `JBL Super League' in the past, but nothing actually changed but the name," he said. "We've now got to create a professional league."

"Otherwise, it won't develop the game in Japan and won't be a sport that children want to play.

"The majority of the JBL clubs are backed up by big corporations and they're not willing to join a pro league.

"To be very honest with you, I want those organizations to get out of it."

As to the integrating of the JBL and bj-league, Orimo isn't optimistic at all that it will be completed because the rules and customs are too different on both sides.

Although he says a "merger" is not realistic, he doesn't rule out starting up a completely new league.

"The thing is, those who raise their hands should create one (professional) league," he said.

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