The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games gold medal softball team, Japan, was honoured on Wednesday in Fukushima, ahead of the opening of the Japanese Softball League, to be played over the weekend at Azuma Fukushima Stadium. All 15 Olympic gold medalists and head coach Reika Utsugi were present at the ceremony.
Utsugi said: "I wanted to come to Fukushima and thank them immediately after winning the gold medal. I’m really happy with this opportunity."
This event was the perfect preface to the 54th Japan Women’s Softball League Championship Tournament, to be staged in Fukushima from 6-7 November. The top-five teams after the regular season are meeting in the finals.
Fourth- and fifth-place finishers in the regular season, Toyota Shining Vega and Honda Reverta, will open the final tournament with an elimination game. Two Olympians could face off in the circle, with Mexico’s Dallas Escobedo leading Shining Vega and USA’s Ally Carda playing for Honda Reverta. The winner of this game will play Hitachi Sundiva (third-place finisher in the regular season) in Game 3 of the Championship Tournament, in the last of Saturday’s games.
The key match-up will take place on Saturday at noon when top-ranked Bic Camera Takasaki Bee Queen take on the Toyota Red Terriers, who finished second. The winner will head directly into the final. Four of the top Tokyo Olympics pitchers will be part of the game, with Yukiko Ueno and Yamato Fujita highlighting Bee Queen’s pitching staff, while Monica Abbott and Miu Goto are the aces of the Red Terriers' rotation. The loser will have another shot in the second semifinal contest against the winner of Game 3, also on 7 November.
Bic Camera Takasaki Bee Queen is the two-time defending JSL champion.
