Okayama University Kyudo (Japanese archery) Club’s men’s team won the 62nd Western Japan Collegiate Kyudo Championships which was held at Zip Arena Okayama (Kita Ward, Okayama City) on May 19 and 20. It was the Kyudo Club’s second victory and its first in 20 years. Hibiki Kanamori, a second-year student at the Faculty of Engineering won the individual competition at the championship for the first time.

A total of 53 universities from the Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu regions participated in the championship. The final of the men’s team competition was a round-robin tournament, in which each of the eight collegiate teams that advanced from the preliminary round competed against all the other teams for victory. Okayama University’s team, which was comprised of six members of second and third-year students, won the championship with a fine record of six wins and one loss.

In the individual final, the izume method was used. (Each competitor shoots the first arrow; competitors who miss the target are eliminated, and those who have hit the target shoot a second arrow and so on; and the competitor who keeps hitting the target becomes the winner.) Hibiki Kanamori hit the target eight times in a row and won the championship.

Tatsuro Sato, the captain of Kyudo Club commented on his team’s victory: “As the captain of the club, I’m proud that we were able to win the championship in such a big competition.” Hibiki Kanamori, who participated in this championship for the first time and won the first victory in the individual competition, expressed his delight, saying, “I’m glad that I was able to keep calm and shoot arrows as usual.”