Ten Paralympic veterans in Japan squad for Sochi 2014 Qualification Tournament

By Gary Anderson

September 13 - Japan's ice sledge hockey squad has been named for the Sochi 2014 Paralympics Qualification Tournament taking place in Turin and contains ten of the players that won silver at Vancouver 2010.

The 17-strong squad will arrive in the Italian city which hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics and Paralympics next month looking to continue their good form this year which saw them take silver in the 2013 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships B-Pool in March, losing out to Germany in the final, on home ice in Nagano.

Vancouver 2010 veterans Tomohiko Maruo, Daisuke Uehara, Mitsuru Nagase, Kazuhiro Takahashi, Mikio Annaka, Satoru Sudo, Mamoru Yoshikawa, Makoto Majima, Toshiyuki Nakamura and Shinbou Fukushima will provide the backbone of the squad that will be competing against Germany, Great Britain, Italy, South Korea and Sweden during the tournament in Turin which is due to take place from October 20 to 26.

An ecstatic Mitsuru Nagase celebrates getting to the Vancouver 2010 gold-medal match after defeating hosts Canada in the semi-final

Takahashi, who was top scorer in Nagano with eight goals, will also be joined by Taimei Shiba, Eiji Misawa, Wataru Horie, Hideaki Ishii, Susumu Hirose, Masaharu Kumagai and Yoshihiro Shioya.