World Championships Commence – Friday – Practice Day

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This page will be updated during the day. In addition to this page the following websites are expected to be progressively updated during the tournament.

World Gateball Union World Championship Website
Japan Gateball Union Website
Japan Gateball on Facebook

The opening ceremony will be streamed live on USTREAM
Opening Ceremony : 16:00-17:00 AEST

News from Thursday

All Australian teams have now arrived in Niigata. Some teams visited the courts which were still being set up. Practice was not allowed. Courts look excellent with long and flat grass. The rain has largely passed and a fine day is expected for Friday.

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Some team previews are published in English here for Australia, Europe and Russia and here for the Americas.

Friday news

The draw is up (below). Weather is hot and teams are streaming into the arrival area. Australian teams have reasonable blocks as listed below.

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Practice has begun in earnest.image

 

Managers meeting at 1pm.image

The full draw is available here: http://www.gateball.or.jp/2014WGC_Groupstage.pdf

Practice has gone well. China and Japan are looking particularly strong. All Australian teams practiced well adapting to the slow courts.

Catching up with friends from Indonesia, Japan, India, China and Switzerland.

30 mins of practice remaining before the opening ceremony from 3pm local time (4pm AEST). To be broadcast live online (see Ustream links above).

Lots of excitement in the Australian squad about Southport’s opposing teams. We are all hoping to see one Australian team qualify for the knockout phase. Only the winner of each 4 team block qualifies for the knockout phase.

Opening ceremony featured Taiko drumming, introduction of teams and welcome speeches. Australian teams are tired after the day of practice. Two members of each team will attend a welcome party this evening.

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Welcome party will also be streamed live on Ustram (links above) from 6:30pm local time (7:30pm AEST).

More updates and details tomorrow from 6am.horizontal1_RGB

Australia’s participation in the 2014 World Gateball Championship has been supported by the Australian Government through the Australia-Japan Foundation.

5 thoughts on “World Championships Commence – Friday – Practice Day

  1. Thank you for the updates and so glad that the weather has turned and you have fine warm days. Wish we had the rich green grass here in Queensland as shown in the above photo.
    Good luck to all Aussies tomorrow and we will be following your every move.
    WW

    • Hey Mike

      Thanks for the support. We had a Japanese girl from the TKE team hoping to see you and Kim.

      Only the finals and closing ceremony will be streamed live. From 1330 local time (1430 AEST) on Sunday.
      Glen

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