In the Tokyo Olympics and Artistic Swimming duet, the pair of Japanese players Yukiko Inui and Megumu Yoshida did not win medals for the second consecutive tournament in 4th place, but they managed to act as a growing "partner". rice field.

For Inui, who is the captain of Japan in the three Olympic Games, Yoshida is the seventh partner in the 12-year national team.



Three years ago, Masayo Imura overtook Yoshida, who has "twin-like legs" similar to Inui, as a partner of Inui who won the bronze medal at the Rio de Janeiro Games.



Even at the age of 30, the gap between the two is noticeable when they are lined up with Inui, who shows high footwork and stable rotation that does not shake the axis.

However, the performance tailored to Yoshida never reaches the medal.

With that in mind, Imura started a special training to train Yoshida from the basics on a one-on-one basis after the world championship, which ended in 4th place.



The practice for the entire team extends from 7:30 am to midnight, so the special training starts at 5:30 am.

I slept for about 5 hours, and every day I was soaked in practice that Yoshida said, "24 hours a day is not enough."



The result of hard practice has brought signs of change in the evaluation of the two people, who are fourth in the world.

In April, Japan went on an expedition to Russia to participate in the international tournament for the first time in about two years since the world championship due to the influence of Corona.

At first, the judges, who were dry scoring, saw the height of the footwork of Yoshida who improved his basic skills and the rotation that did not shake, and the evaluation of the two people began to improve.



And the Olympics were greeted.


In his technical routine, he didn't score as much as he expected and was about 0.5 points away from his rival Ukraine.

Even in this final, Yoshida, who couldn't get rid of his tension at the first Olympics, had a disorder in his synchronism with Inui due to the angle and timing of his footwork.

As a result, the gap was widened to Ukraine in 3rd place, and the evaluation of 4th place could not be overturned.



Even so, when Yoshida cried in the coverage area, "I wish I were a little better," Inui, who was next to me, shook his head and said, "I think it was harder than I was, but I often came without throwing it."



Although he did not reach the target medal, Yoshida who grew up chasing the back of his seniors and Inui who kept calmly supporting his juniors even on the big stage under heavy pressure can be evaluated as "real partners". did.


The two will work to regain Japan with the remaining "team".