Sun Yingsha's 46-year-old senior brother appointed as head coach of Japanese women's table tennis team, vows to win Olympic gold, claiming strength is close to Chinese team
On January 19th, the Japan Table Tennis Association held a press conference in Tokyo, officially announcing the new head coaches for the men's and women's teams. The new male team coach is 37-year-old Kishikawa Kento, while the new female team coach is 46-year-old Nakazawa Toshio.
It is worth noting that Nakazawa Toshio and Sun Yingsha are from the same school, both having played for the Hebei Provincial Table Tennis Team under the tutelage of famous table tennis coach Yang Guangdi. Nakazawa was teammates with Ma Lin, and Sun Yingsha is his junior sister from the same school. In other words, Sun Yingsha's senior brother has become the head coach of the Japanese women's table tennis team, which has sparked heated discussions among netizens!
After becoming the head coach of the Japanese women's table tennis team, Nakazawa Toshio showed great ambition at the press conference, vowing to win the Olympic gold medal and frankly stating that their strength is close to that of the Chinese team. Nakazawa said in front of the media, "I am deeply honored to be entrusted with this important task, but I also feel a heavy responsibility. I want to build the Japanese women's table tennis team into an even stronger team. The strength of the women's group is closer to the Chinese team than ever before, and the goal for the women's event is only the gold medal. To achieve this goal, I will consult with the director of the strengthening department and the staff!"
The strengthening department mentioned by Nakazawa Toshio is a department responsible for athlete selection, training, and match arrangements within the Japanese table tennis team, existing to enhance the overall competitive level of the Japanese table tennis team. Currently serving as the director of the strengthening department is Maeyama Mika (formerly known as Hoshino Mika), the former private coach of Ai Fukuhara and also a former head coach of the Japanese women's table tennis team.
After Nakazawa Toshio declared that the goal of the Japanese women's table tennis team is to win the Olympic gold medal and expressed his intention to consult with the director of the strengthening department, Maeyama Mika, as the director of the strengthening department, also expressed her support for Nakazawa Toshio at the press conference, saying, "Mr. Nakazawa understands the top techniques of the Chinese team, and he has also cultivated many excellent players during his coaching career. I hope you can make good use of this!"
Nakazawa Toshio was once a Chinese player, originally named Wang Rui. Why did he become the head coach of the Japanese women's table tennis team and change his name to "Nakazawa Toshio"? This is all traceable. Wang Rui is from Hebei, China, and his competitive level was not bad. During his time playing for the Hebei Provincial Table Tennis Team, Wang Rui was teammates with Ma Lin, the current coach of the national women's table tennis team. Unfortunately, the competition in the field of Chinese table tennis is too fierce, and Wang Rui never made it into the national team throughout his career. Eventually, he chose to retire and joined Japanese nationality in 2008, changing his name to Nakazawa Toshio (hereinafter referred to as Nakazawa Toshio).
After retiring, Nakazawa Toshio continued his table tennis career in a different way, transforming into a table tennis coach. Upon arriving in Japan, Nakazawa Toshio initially could not coach the Japanese table tennis players. He first coached the mikihouse club and later coached the Japanese Table Tennis Association's youth elite team. It wasn't until the end of 2015 that Nakazawa Toshio finally received recognition and began serving as the main coach of Miyu Hirano, personally cultivating her into a world-class player. Miyu Hirano's victory over three national team players to win the women's singles championship at the 2017 Asian Championships is the best proof of this.
In addition to Miyu Hirano, Miu Kihara is another player cultivated by Nakazawa Toshio. In 2017, Kasumi Ishikawa and Masataka Yoshida won the mixed doubles gold medal at the World Table Tennis Championships, which also had Nakazawa's guidance behind it. At last year's Japanese National Table Tennis Championships, the winner of the youth group championship, Tomokazu Harimoto, also received guidance from Nakazawa Toshio. Judging from Nakazawa Toshio's coaching career resume, the rapid progress of the Japanese women's table tennis team in recent years has been crucially influenced by this Chinese-born coach.
Now that Nakazawa Toshio has become the head coach of the Japanese women's table tennis team, this is not exactly good news for the national team, as Nakazawa Toshio is more familiar with the technical styles of Chinese players than other coaches, and he will formulate more targeted training to help the Japanese women's table tennis team improve their technical level. However, competitive sports still depend on strength, and while the Japanese women's table tennis team continues to progress, the national team will not stand still. We are currently in the Los Angeles Olympic cycle, and there will be no shortage of matches between the two sides. As for who will shine on the international stage, let the results speak for themselves!