Japanese institution invites Cuban baseball team to train in its facilities

Jun Ogata, director of Sendai Ikuei Gakuen Incorporated, told the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) that this Japanese school invites them to do training there prior to Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Ernesto Reynoso, Cuba´s national baseball director, thanked the gesture at a meeting held at the Havana´s Convention Center, as part of the 8th International Convention on Physical Activity and Sports (AFIDE).

The FCB received videos and photos of the facilities in Sendai Ikuei, about 80 kilometers from Fukushima, one of the venues of Tokyo 2020 baseball tournament. The other is Yokohama, located 250 km from the Japanese capital.

The visitors donated baseballs balls, similar to those used in the WBSC Premier 12 Tournament, running in Japan by these days, and from which Cuba was eliminated in the qualifying stage.

Cuba will opt for the only ticket in dispute in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament for the Americas, based in Arizona, United States, in March 2020.

The squads ranking second and third in that contest will have another option in the final Olympic qualifier of Chinese Taipei, which grants a solo berth in April, and will also involve the second place in the Africa-Europe tournament, two teams from the Asian championship and the winner of Oceania.

A total of six sides, including the host, will attend the Tokyo 2020 Olympics baseball tournament. Cuba exhibits in three titles and two silver medals in its five incursions of Olympic baseball.

The Sendai Ikuei school previously made the same invitation to Cuban volleyball.