Japanese International Exchange For North Harbour Juniors

Eleven u15 and u17 players have been selected to represent North Harbour at the Tomioka World Project 2025 in Fukushima, Japan.  Orangised by the Tomioka Town Sakura Culture and Sports Promotion Corporation, the players will be engaged in a four day pre tournament training camp before participating at the tournament from 2-6 May.  Players have been invited from China, Chinese Taipei and players from domestic teams in Japan.

One of the objectives of the Tomioka World Project is to broaden horizons of junior athletes by promoting interaction between domestic and international badminton players, aiming to improve their competitive abilities from an early age.

For the Japanese players, this is an opportunity for the organisers to discover and develop athletes who will follow in the footsteps of players such as Kento Momota, Takuro Hoki, Yuta Watanabe and Aya Ohori who all come from Fukushima and have made it to the world stage and competing in the Olympics.

We are very fortunate to have this opportunity for our young players who we are sure will come back to New Zealand with many lessons learned.  We wish them well.