Japan’s star spiker Kurihara misses out the Olympic qualification – Volleyball News
The head coach of Japanese women’s national volleyball team, Masayoshi Manabe, announced the final team-line for the 2012 London Olympic Games on Monday.
Following a tough evaluation and review of previous performance, only 12 players made their way to the roster of Japanese team for the Olympics. However, the wing-spiker Megumi Kurihara failed to make the cut and left off the Olympic squad. It came out as a surprise for many as Kurihara was expected to be selected for the Olympics.
In this connection, the team mentor Manabe stated: "It was an extremely difficult selection, but I felt these are the 12 who give Japan the best shot of a medal at the Olympics. We hope to channel everything this team has as we head to London with spirit and four years' worth of motivation."
The roster of Japanese Olympic team is as follows:
Saori Kimura
Yoshie Takeshita
Yuko Sano
Erika Araki
Ai Otomo
Kaori Inoue
Hitomi Nakamichi,
Mai Yamaguchi,
Risa Shinnabe,
Yukiko Ebata
Maiko Kano
Risa Shinnabe
Kimura and Takeshita are regarded as the most experienced players in the team. Both of them got the chance to represent Japan in the last two editions of Olympic Games. The veteran players are hopeful to give out their best performance in the upcoming competition as well.
Likewise, Sano and Araki played in Team Japan at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and contributed to the overall success of the team. Japan finished fifth in Beijing and has higher aims for the London Olympics. Moreover, middle blocker Otomo has been named to Japan’s Olympic team. She participated in the 2004 Athens Olympic, but dropped the chance to play in Beijing.
Rest of the team is composed of players, who are going to the Olympics for the first time. Inoue, Nakamichi, Yamaguchi, Shinnabe, Ebata and Kano are psyched to showcase their skills in front of the bigger audience in London.
Japan clinched the Olympic berth via World Olympic Qualification Tournament, which took place in Tokyo from May 19-27. The head coach of the team Manabe did a great job at the Olympic qualifier and now has great many plans for the real competition. He is optimistic to do well with this set of players.
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