2015 Yo-Yo World Championships Show Just How Far The Toy Has Come

The yo-yo is simple enough and the concept has been around since Greek antiquity. As a child, you were probably given a yo-yo and maybe could perform the Walk the Dog trick. The Duncan Toys Factory took the toy mainstream after it purchased the Flores Yo-Yo Company, in 1930, and the rest is history. As times have changed, so, too, has the yo-yo and nowhere was that more apparent than at the 2015 World Yo-Yo Contest, held in Tokyo Aug. 13-17.

There were several divisions where master yo-yo athletes competed to become world champions. Whether it was a spinning yo-yo, two yo-yos or a yo-yo with a counterweight, there was a championship up for grabs. World champions from 2014 were placed in the finals and competed with up to 18 yo-yo athletes. The United States and Japan had the largest number of competitors in the five main yo-yo divisions. Japanese competitors claimed three world championships while American athletes nabbed two.

Each competitor was judged on a 100-point scale based on technical execution (out of 60 points), technical evaluation (out of 20 points) and performance evaluation (out of 20 points). Deductions were tallied before a final score was announced. Cleanliness, variation, music use, body control and showmanship in the performance were all evaluated.

Zach Gormley, from the U.S., won the 2015 1A Division -- freestyle with one long spinning yo-yo -- world final with a final score of 88.3. The 1A Division, considered the biggest event in yo-yo competitions, most closely resembles everyday yo-yoing.

Japan's Shinji Saito was crowned 2015 world champion in the 2A Division -- looping trick freestyle with two yo-yos.

Hajime Miura won the 3A Division -- long-spinning freestyle with two yo-yos and Naoto Onishi won the 4A Division -- freestyle with an off-string yo-yo.

The 5A Division -- freestyle with a counterweight -- featured Jake Elliott competing against Takeshi Matsuura, the reigning world champion. Matsuura had the highest technical execution score, while Elliott earned higher technical evaluation and performance evaluation scores. A one-point deduction for Matuura's routine had both competitors tied at 84.9 points,and it came down to a few hundredths of a point. Elliott edged out Matsuura with a final score of 84.93.