AKB48 Tests Their New Team! The Girl’s Second Sports Day Begins

| Idol | Posted by Ayaya on May.13.2015

Sponsored Links

As most fans would know, the famous idol group AKB48 had their second AKB48 Sports Day at the Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo, where they battled it out to see how they’d do in the world of athletics. It’s already been 5 years since their first Sports Day in October 2009 at the Makuhari Messe – how time flies! The second AKB48 Sports Day is the first event for this new team, with the change in the team having been announced at one of their concerts in March. The girls were split into 5 teams; Team A, K, B, 4, and 8, and each team put in their best efforts to give us all a vigorous fight to remember. The event was themed ‘unity’, and that was certainly something we saw on this day.

During the first match, ‘the 30 meter dash’, we saw Teams 4 and 8 use the strength from their youth to push ahead past their seniors, giving them a head start at the event. For the Ball toss game, Team K just won by the skin of their teeth with the help of their Captain Minami Minegishi. During the hurdles race however, Team K took first place using their great teamwork for 2 of the 3 races. Then the climax of the event brought many to the edge of their seats as they watched in anxiousness.

During the Gachinko arm wrestling match, Shizuka Ooya (from Team A) brought down the leading contender, Sayaka Yamamoto (Team K) with her vigor but, Sayaka helped lead Team K to a win in the long jump rope event.

And then onto the final race to end all matches, the ‘Team relay match’. Jurina Matsui was the primary strength of Team K, and was the member who maintained the highest number of points compared to all other teams up until this point, but Maria Abe surpassed her lead with her running. In the end, Team K placed last and Team 8 snatched first place to the surprise of many. The team with the most number of points and who were considered the overall winners of the day were Team 8. On this day, Nao Oota, who served as Team 8’s captain, commented with a big smile, ‘We got first place with the help of everyone’s great efforts!’.

img_AKB_Sports_Meeting_05 img_AKB_Sports_Meeting_25

For their win, the girls happily received a private 2 day onsen trip in addition to their very own solo song. However, being on the losing end, Team A had to clean up the venue as punishment. Despite this, a strong sense of leadership emanated from Team A captain Yui Yokoyama, who is next in line for general manager of AKB48, as she left us with the powerful comment ‘through cleaning, I want to improve our overall unity in the team’.

Although this was just the first event since the shift in roles within AKB48, we not only saw many great matches throughout the event, but we also felt a distinctive increase in the group’s unity on the day through their cheering and great tunes.

AKB48 Official Site : http://www.akb48.co.jp/

Translated by Cheryl Coyle

Author

Ayaya

Been working in girls’ fashion magazines for a long time and am now the chief editor of Tokyo Girls’ Update. I have more expertise in Japanese teen fashion than anyone else (probably)! I’m a huge fan of the Revolutionary Girl Utena and Bakemonogatari animes.