Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Wheelchair Basketball Draw

[Music] good morning good afternoon good evening wherever you're watching in the world welcome to the tokyo 2020 wheelchair basketball draw coming to you from stoke mandeville the birthplace of the paralympic games i'm jeanette quarchi an absolute honor to be here today to bring such a prestigious event for what has been quite a challenging year and despite this event being behind closed doors it remains a truly international event and as we progress through the proceedings today we're here from the president of the international wheelchair basketball federation mr olf murrens and we'll reflect on how the teams qualified for tokyo 2020 and then we conduct the official draw to determine who will be in each group later on this year in august and we'll then have the opportunity to speak to some of the players of the japanese national team after which the draw will then come to a close so to officially begin the draw i would like to introduce ibwf president of marines to say a few words welcome ladies and gentlemen and all friends of wheelchair basketball on behalf of ivyf it's my pleasure to open the draw for the tokyo 2020 paralympic games wheelchair basketball competitions over the past year the world has tried to manage and control unpredictable and challenging conditions the global pandemic has brought one where sport has had to adapt and find solutions to enable to continue tokyo will be no different and it will for sure be a unique games for competing at the paralympic games it's a pinnacle of a wheelchair basketball player's career and this year will be no different for the 26 four players that will represent a country in tokyo starting on the 24th of august we will see the 12th best man's team and the 10 best women teams in the world compete in japan's capital the pandemic has made preparations very different to him to normal for all the teams involved i congratulate you on the passion and addiction of to the sport you love to keep training in whatever capacity has been possible over the last year next weekend we will mark 100 days to go until the start of competition in tokyo and as we celebrate this milestone i must say i'm looking forward to this action but mostly of being able to bring the thrill of watching wheelchair basketball to the people of japan and those following the games and more importantly to bring our sports to communities across all over the world on behalf of idbf i would like to highlight and thank our japanese hosts the tokyo 2020 local organizing organizing committee and the international paralympic committee for all the work they have done to ensure the games will go ahead with the ethnic safety being of paramount importance i like also to take the opportunity to welcome sir phillip graven a close friend of the wheelchair basketball family as well as the japanese ambassador hayashi thank you both for taking the time to be part of the of the draw which is an important step in the team's preparation and with further the excitement as we move closer to the games i will now pass you back to our friends in stoke manor stadium and i'm sure you are excited as i am to see the results of the past good luck to all the participating teams with your final preparation train well stay safe and healthy and i wish you a successful rent see you all in tokyo thank you for those words of and to explain now how the draw will be conducted i'd like to invite to the stage charlie bethel board member of the international wheelchair basketball federation the chairman of the competition commission and a technical delegate for tokyo 2020 thank you jeanette good morning good evening to all our players coaches members of the wheelchair basketball family and those who love the sport of wheelchair basketball it is my pleasure to be able to conduct the draw for wheelchair basketball for the competition of the summer paralympic games in tokyo later this year the draw represents the final stage before the paralympic games this determines the competitors that each team will have in the preliminary group games this is more important than many people realize as you will discover as i explain how the draw works falls to me to oversee and explain how the draw will be conducted and let us start by using the men's draw as an example of how teams qualified to begin we have the men's competition with 12 teams each of our regions or zones is awarded one place then in addition to that the host is also given a place and finally the remaining seven places in the men's competition were earned for their zones at the world championships in hamburg two years ago at the zonal championships which took place in poland peru thailand and in south africa the places held by each zone were fought over to determine the teams coming to tokyo as you can now see on your screen in order to conduct the draw we pair the top nations in each zone this is to ensure as much as possible that we get parity across the groups and that all the teams from one's own are not placed in the same group so as you can see we have paired the men we've paired the united states of america and canada this is because they are ranked one and two in their zone of the americas next we have australia and the republic of korea great britain and spain turkey and germany then african champions algeria with colombia from the americas and this is because we have an odd number coming from different zones and finally the islamic republic of iran together with the hosts japan so in order to conduct the draw we have placed the names of each paired team in molten replica balls when the draw takes place the team pulled out first will go into group a and the team pulled out second will go into group b we continue this process until each pair has been pulled out with the exception of the host japan and the team that they are paired with and this is where the home advantage comes in we then give the host two minutes to decide which group they wish to go into and therefore their pair team will go into the opposite side of the draw this is the gift of iwbf in recognition of the contribution their nation is making to our sport and a big thank you back to you thank you charlie for explaining that so clearly i hope everybody got that wherever you're watching now let's remind ourselves of how some of the men's teams qualified [Music] [Music] great memories for some of you i'm sure who are watching so let's start the draw for the men's competition and we would like to welcome a five-time paralympian sir philip craven mbe and his excellency ambassador of japan to the united kingdom hayashi hijimi to draw the balls welcome gentlemen thank you i would like to ask you sir phillip please to draw from the first bowl text and the first team in group a is canada a team with a great medal record at the paralympic games if you could reveal the contents of the second ball in the same bowl please and to confirm the first team in group b the united states of america the reigning paralympic champions mr hayashi if you could please draw from the second bowl and the second team in group a is the republic of korea a team who won silver at the asian oceanic games and if you could reveal the contents of the second bowl please and the second team in group b is australia world champions in 2014 and twice silver twice gold paralympic levelists so philip if you could please draw the third and the third team in group a is spain silver medalists in rio at the summer paralympic games and to confirm the third team in group b are the current reigning world champions great britain mr hayashi if you could please draw the fourth ball and the fourth team in group a is turkey bronze medalists at the last european championships and to confirm germany as the fourth team in group b germany the hosts of the last world championships and so philip the fifth and final ball please and the fifth team in group a is colombia colombia bronze medalists in lima in 2019 and the champions of africa will go into group b algeria thank you very much sir philip and mr hayashi we can look on the screen now we can see that those are your two groups group a canada republic of korea spain turkey and colombia and in group b it's the usa australia great britain germany and algeria fantastic stuff watching on has been japanese head coach kazuyuki koia and we have them up on screen now and as you've been following you have now two minutes to decide which group you'd like to go in either group eight or group b we're hoping to get them up on the screen just to confirm that and whilst they have a think about that oh there we go whilst you have a think about which group you'd like to go into and we're going to speak with the captain of japan's national team akira toyoshima and akira should be joining us here akira how are preparations going ahead of the games with the team foreign i'm very happy that the draw is held today thank you very much because of the postponement of one year our team has been working hard to improve our mind skills and body i want to be well prepared for the rest of the time until the paralympics fantastic and what are your thoughts on the draw for that men's competition the draw has been uh fixed today i'm so excited to play at the paralympic games uh no matter what happens we what we need to do is to pre uh play very hard playing our best fantastic thank you so much akira if we could just remind us oh no the ambassador wants to have a few words with you akira if that's possible yes well uh hello uh well of course obviously you're one of the renowned international players of wheelchair basketball i'd like to ask you uh what do you want to appeal to audiences both in japan and in the world when you play uh wheelchair basketball games in tokyo um it is a great honor to participate in the paralympic games which will be held in my country because it may happen only once in my lifetime i want to bring a smile to people all over the world who are looking forward to watching the games thank you thank you we can now go back and have a look at that draw very quickly and speak to japanese head coach kazuyuki koya have you made your decision as to which group you would like to go hi yes would you like to tell us your decision so japan has confirmed they wish to go into group a and so i confirmed japan will be in group a and the islamic republic of iran will be in group b good luck to all the teams brilliant staff so the final groups are group a canada republic of korea spain turkey colombia and japan in group b the usa australia great britain germany algeria and iran now i mean sir philip when you look at those groups there that's that's tough isn't it you know any any paralympic games is tough but this is exciting well um i was not surprised when the japanese coach chose to go into pool a and um i don't know if we're going to call uh pool b the pool of death or whatever but um but there's some real powerful teams in there and but that will mean there'll be some major upsets as well i think which is and but i'm in one way very pleased i i did some coaching in iran um in 95 and uh and they've come on so much since then not because of me i hasn't too hard um but but really when they join uh that group in in in pool b that is a an amazing group and also the teams in in group a so it's going to be a great competition it makes for a very exciting competition so we do now know what those men's groups look like let's move over to the women's draw and here are some highlights of the women's qualification [Music] there has been a very quick change of the balls so we'll now move on to the women's draw which will happen in exactly the same manner so i invite you to phillip please to draw from the first bowl thank you and the first team in group a is canada canada the american champions and the reigning paralympic champions the usa will go into group b mr hayashi please if you could draw from the second bowl and the second team into group a will be australia a young andre team silver medalists in 2019 asian oceana championships just to confirm and to confirm the second team will be the people's republic of china an incredible force and bronze medalists at the world championships in 2018. so philip if you could please draw the third ball and the third team in group a is great britain silver medalists at the last world championships and the contents of the second and third team into group b is the netherlands the reigning world champions and european champions and the fourth and final bowl please mr hajashi fourth team in group a is germany silver medalists in the rio 2016 summer paralympic games and to confirm and the fourth team qualifying into group b is spain their first return since barcelona brilliant so we have the two women's groups there group a canada australia great britain and germany and in group b the usa china the netherlands and spain and with that first stage complete we can now say hello to japanese women's head coach yoshiaki iwasa who should be joining us now having had a look at both of those groups and following the draw you now have two minutes to decide which group you would like to go in so i'll give you some time to think about that and in the meantime let's speak to the captain of japan's national team ikumu fuji um by a video link they should be beamed onto us and there she is hello welcome thank you for joining us what are your thoughts on that pool drawer for the women's competition i uh i think the older games are very hard so what we need what we need to do is we we need to just uh pray very hard brilliant and what do you think japan and how japan will benefit from hosting the paralympic games and for the sport of wheelchair basketball to have such a great platform i think the benefit is raising awareness of the support of wheelchair basketball i hope that the children with an impairment will have their goals and dreams through the wheelchair basketball fantastic ambassador i actually would like to say a few words to you hello it could be i'm sure you have been waiting for this a great opportunity quite long time particularly since last year uh well possible moment was decided because of the pandemic i'd like to ask you what is your feeling and excitement today because of positive games just well around the corner only three months is to come the paralympic games is the world's most prestigious stage which can be reached after overcoming many challenges there are only a handful of athletes who can make it that stage that they will they have the responsibility of fighting for their countries as an athlete the past paralympic games are very valuable competition thank you very much ukumi and good luck in tokyo now just to remind us of the groups we can now go back to japanese head coach yoshiaki owasa for his decision group a yes so japan has confirmed they wish to go into group a so i confirm japan will be in group a and algeria the champions of africa will go into group b good luck to all of the women's teams so here are the final groups for the women group a canada australia great britain germany and japan and in group b usa china the netherlands spain and algeria so philip another two very very strong groups another competitive set up for those paralympic games it's looking really good i can't wait to get out there and see it very strong teams even though of course i played in the men's competition the best half ever tactically and technically of wheelchair basketball that i ever saw was in the final in 2004 in athens with the u.s women just playing perfect wheelchair basketball so the women's game is it's a great sport and uh i have no idea who's going to win we're a sport for choice aren't we with that and what are your hopes for the paralympic games it's not long now it's been such a tough ride to this particular point what are you hoping for i'm just well i know that they're going to be a fantastic success i just can't wait to get out there with my wife and go and observe the first summer games that i've been to where i've not been president of ipc so i'm just going to be uh i'm just going to be there to observe wonderful sports and particularly of course my sport wheelchair basketball so you can take a seat back and just relax and watch the games with no stress fantastic stuff no stress at all so that wraps up our draw many thanks to all of you watching from across the world i hope that's got you really excited for what promises to be a really special paralympic games a massive thank you to stoke mandeville for hosting us here today thank you to charlie thank you to ambassador hayashi and of course sir phillip and we're wishing all of the teams the best of luck in tokyo [Music] you