Joint Coaching by Men’s Baseball & Women’s Softball Olympian Athletes

Japanese Olympic Committee Hosts “Olympic Day Festa” in Sendai

80 Elementary School Base Ballers including 3 girls and 90 Junior High Softball Girl Players in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture braved freezing cold to join instruction sessions of baseball and softball at the Gymnasium of Tohoku Fukushi University on December 24.

The “Olympic Day Festa” project by JOC is aimed to provide reconstruction support for areas affected by Great East Japan Earthquake on March.11, 2011. Softball coaching staff were headed by Pitcher Yukiko Ueno, gold medalist of 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 World Women’s Softball Championship accompanied by 5 international women’s champion athletes.

Ex-Manager Masatake Yamanaka (1992 Barcelona Bronze, Hosei University visiting professor) represented Baseball coaching delegation accompanied by 9 other Olympians including Softbank Hawks star player in 2012 Hiroki Kokubo (1992 Barcelona Bronze) and Yuya Ando (2004 Athens Bronze, Hanshin Tigers).

With the backdrop of merger between IBAF and ISF into new World Baseball Softball Confederation, this joint coaching event in Sendai demonstrates close ties between the two NFs, Baseball Federation of Japan and Japan Softball Association, in their endeavor to reinstate both sports in 2020 Olympic Games.