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MONTHLY NEWS June 1997 Women's Field Hockey League Launched |
With the aim of raising the level of female field hockey players in Japan by the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, the Japan Hockey Association launched a women's hockey league in May.
The Japan Women's National Hockey League, nicknamed the F League, will consist of six teams. Three will be varsity teams from Tenri University, Yamanashi Gakuin University and Tokai Women's College, and the other three will be corporate teams from Nanto Bank, Nippon Glaxo, and Sony Ichinomiya. The inaugural season began on May 10 and will last through July 6. Many hope that the establishment of the F League will raise the ranking of the Japanese women's field hockey team, currently twelfth in the world. It has a good shot at participating in the Sydney Games because the top 10 national teams will qualify to compete in the Games.
Photo: An F League game between Tokai Women's College (blue) and Yamanashi Gakuin University (red). (Masaki Miyano, Japan Hockey Association) 
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