This year's UCI Cycle-ball World Cup starts earlier than usual, with the opening round taking place in Kobe, Japan, this weekend (11-12 February).
Originally scheduled for March, the Japanese round was brought forward for organisational reasons, and will see the best eight teams from Asia (Japan, Hong Kong and Malaysia) meet the two best Under 23 teams from Europe.
This year's Under 23 European Champions, Markus Dörr and Luca Kovacevic (VC Darmstadt/GER), along with the runners-up Timon and Yannick Fröhlich (RS Altdorf, SUI), are the guests in Kobe.
The Japanese teams to watch
The favoured Asian team is RSV Osaka I (JPN), winners the last two years of the B tournament at the UCI Indoor Cycling World Championships. Also interesting is the international comeback of the duo Ko Matsuda and Riku Akatsu (Tachikawa CSC, JPN). Matsuda was part of the last appearance of a Japanese team in the UCI World Championships A tournament, in 2009. Since then, together with Akatsu, he continued to compete at the UCI Indoor Cycling World Championships until 2019.
For details of the 2023 UCI Cycle-ball World Cup first round in Kobe, Japan: schedule and results.
Development of women’s cycle-ball
The supporting programme in Kobe will give Japanese women the opportunity to demonstrate their skills. While many Junior Leagues in Europe see girls playing in mixed teams, Japan is leading the way for all-women competition, holding an unofficial National Championships for women for the first time in 2019.
What comes next?
A two-month break will follow the initial fixture in Japan, before another seven events in Europe between April and November.