Ten teams from five nations will front up in Tokyo on July 5 for the third of nine rounds of the 2015 UCI Cycle-ball World Cup. It is the third time, after 2005 and 2011, that the Japanese capital hosts the World Cup.
Although the host nation has nominated six teams to compete this weekend, the European teams remain the favourites, not least the experienced Czech duo of SC Svitavka comprising Pavel Loskot (50 World Cup appearances) and Pavel Vitula.
The leader of the second group is the young German team from RSC Schiefbahn: Marius Hermanns and Sven Holland-Moritz have climbed two classes in 24 months to reach the 1st German National League. The German Cycling Federation has granted them a wild card for Tokyo.
Japan’s biggest hopes lie with RSV Osaka (Yosuke Murakami and Koji Okajima), ranked 10th overall in the 2014 UCI Cycle-ball World Cup Final, and Kuramae (Yosuke Fujita and Munehiro Tokikura), who disputed the 2013 Indoor Cycling World Championships.
Teams from Hong Kong-China (Wing Tai Ho and Chun Tin Kwan) and from Malaysia (Mohd Zikri Dahalan and Muhd Khairul Azhar) complete the line-up.