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Ran Takahashi Viewed as Key Player for Team Japan at Next Olympics

Ran Takahashi Viewed as Key Player for Team Japan at Next Olympics

   Paris, Aug. 9 (Jiji Press)--Japanese volleyball player Ran Takahashi will likely be a key pillar of the country's national men's team in the 2028 Olympics, when it seeks revenge for its narrow defeat in a quarterfinal match at the Paris Games.
   Japan lost to Italy 3-2 on Monday to end its bid to win the first gold medal in 52 years. Takahashi, 22, supported the team in both offense and defense alongside team captain Yuki Ishikawa.
   As a student at Higashiyama High School in Kyoto Prefecture, western Japan, Takahashi frequently heard from his volleyball coach Rio Matsunaga, 42, who had coached Ishikawa as a student at Chuo University, about the kind of practice Ishikawa had engaged in.
   Takahashi won the national high school championship as the team ace, and was picked for the Japanese national team roster in 2020, the year he entered Nippon Sport Science University. "He had said from the moment he joined the national team that he would 'surpass Yuki (Ishikawa)-san,'" Matsunaga recounted.
   Adept at serve receptions, the rising star was praised by Nippon Sport Science University volleyball coach Kenji Yamamoto, a former libero for the national team, as having "a unique knack" for the sport.

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AFP-JIJI PRESS NEWS JOURNAL


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