Journey to Paris: Lessons Learned by Japan Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team at Osaka Cup

Following AKATSUKI JAPAN!What the Japan Women’s Wheelchair Basketball National Team learned from the International Friendly Tournament as they aim to travel to Paris

The 2024 Women’s International Friendly Wheelchair Basketball Osaka Tournament (Osaka Cup) was held from February 16th to 18th.

The venue, Asue Arena Osaka, will also be the stage for the world final qualifying rounds for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games (April).

In the audience were elementary and junior high school students from Osaka Prefecture, AKATSUKI JAPAN players, wheelchair basketball fans…all sorts of people rushed to the venue and passionately cheered on the Japanese players who will be participating in the world finals.

A total of 8,063 people watched the match over the three days.

When reinforcement pays off

Last year, they participated in the world championship for the first time in two tournaments, and at the 2024 Asia-Oceania Championships (AOC) held in Thailand in January, they performed well against China, who had won a ticket to Paris. The Japanese women’s wheelchair basketball team is now within reach for Paris.

HC Iwano is a former athlete who participated in the Paralympics as a member of Japan’s men’s national team.

Head coach Hiroshi Iwano, who will lead the team from 2021, speaks with a sense of fulfillment.
“I think the running and fast-attacking style that we’ve cultivated since the team’s inception is bearing fruit.”

The Osaka Cup was a round-robin qualifying round for four teams: Japan, England, Thailand, and Australia.

Japan won their first match against Australia with a huge score of 72-28 and rode a wave of success, before being completely defeated by Great Britain, who had already secured a ticket to the Paris Paralympic Games. They had a solid win over the lower-ranked team, Thailand, and advanced to the finals in 2nd place.

Runner-up Mayo Hagino (pictured) and Kitada from Japan were selected for the individual award.

The final will be against England again. However, it was not a revenge game and they lost 46-71. Still, you can see the response from each comment.

“I was able to take on the challenge without giving up until the end.” (HC Iwano)

“We were able to make a difference with our defense, and (in an on-court interview with the winning team) they said that the opponent was having a hard time.” (Amane Yanagimoto)

“Yesterday I was hit by Bokosuka, but today I felt like I was able to hit back at one of the three times I was hit.” (Chihiro Kitada)

Japan’s starting five is Mari Amimoto, Chihiro Kitada, Amane Yanagimoto, Mayo Hagino, and Izumi Zaimi.

Harvest and challenges for the final qualifying round

Mari Amimoto, who has a long history with the Japanese national team, reflected on the important start-up, saying, “The big thing is that everyone can do things without hesitation, such as making a fast attack early, connecting passes, and making crosses,” and said that the team’s collaboration has improved. It was shown that

Amimoto aims to participate in the Paralympics for the third time

In the final, the starting five had a long playing time, but in the third quarter, when they were 16 points behind and temporarily closed the gap, two young players, junior high school student Ruri Kojima and high school student Aoi Nishimura, took to the court.

Head coach Iwano revealed that the reason for his appointment was to “let them experience chasing situations” and “because Yanagimoto and Hagino were getting into trouble with fouls, so they could stay on the court until the end (we had to replace them).” However, he played tenaciously until the end and tried to push the young players up.

Kojima, who has great shooting ability, is the youngest member of the team and aims to represent Japan.

However, on the offensive side, the scores did not improve in the second half.

“I would like to spend more time during halftime to check each player’s shot touch, or run to keep my heart rate up.” (Yanagimoto)

“(As a measure against teams playing inside), we would like to improve the probability of outside shots by the final qualifying round.” (Amimoto)

Yanagimoto has gained more confidence in his running ability

Mistakes in passing are also an issue. There were times when he couldn’t connect with the running Amimoto, and said, “It’s good to pass the ball forward to the running person, but there were times when I was behind and couldn’t connect.” I want everyone to work together to come up with variations in their passes.” The team’s scorer turned forward.

Chinami Shimizu, who is increasing her playing time, became the top scorer against Australia

Captain Kitada told the players before the tournament, “This is the venue for the final qualifying round, so let’s be grateful for allowing us to have the best rehearsal at the best time, and let’s make sure we don’t waste every minute.” That’s what it means.

After playing all four games, the Japanese national team has learned a lot and will now continue preparing for the final qualifying round in two months, and then the Paris tournament.

Captain Kitada shows strong leadership even off the court.

At the world final qualifying round in April, those who finish in the top four out of eight teams will earn a ticket to Paris.

“I think this will be a tournament that will determine the future of the wheelchair basketball world,” says Kitada with emphasis.

Japan’s women’s national team aims to qualify for the Paris Paralympic Games

“I think the way women are featured and the way they are paid will probably change depending on whether they participate in the Paralympics or not. Women (who missed out on qualifying for the London and Rio Games) will participate in the Paralympics. When I couldn’t play, the boys participated and helped connect us, so now I want the girls to connect.More than anything, I think the boys won the silver medal at the Tokyo Games, which is why wheelchair basketball started to boom. By having women participate in the Paralympic Games, we want to retain those fans and pass them on to our next generation. We can’t let this excitement die out now.”

In the end, the one with the strongest will wins. I hope to see Japan’s joy at the same venue two months from now.

Thailand in 3rd place and Australia in 4th place will also participate in the final qualifying round.

text by Asuka Senaga
photo by X-1

2024-02-26 23:46:42
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