For all the people beating up on Hayata - lets look at the alternatives and some of the nuances being overlooked:
1. It is not Hayata's fault that Rin Mende won the Japanese trials for an automatic spot. Usually, someone like Kihara or Nagasaki or Odo should have won such a spot. But Odo didnt play and Nagasaki lost to Rin.
2. Miu Hirano, who is technically sounder in some ways, didnt do well at Japanese Champs nor did she play the trials - stayed out in SC Chennai and got back late after losing to Odo.
3. Odo skipped the trials and assumed that ahe would be picked. But what she did not count on was Rin Mende winning the trials. And then losing the coaches pick to Nagasaki.
4. No one on the JNT, including Miwa, has a good record against the CNT. Miwa's victory today was a gift.
I write this so that all the issues are in one place. Sure, put it on Hayata, but you still have to explain who else is doing better against the Chinese. Korea? Germany? Hong Kong? Taiwan? Romania? Poland?
You can say now that Odo should have been picked and Hayata should have been benched. But know how all this happened so that you don't think it is a matter of incompetence. In fact, the biggest opponent of Hayata eas juat arguing last week that Nagasaki was more valuable than Odo. These things are legitimately complicated.
