Tanaka Holdings Co., Ltd., the Tanaka Kikinzoku group’s holding company headquartered in Tokyo, participated as a Category Sponsor in the IBSA Blind Football World Grand Prix 2018, which was held from March 21 to March 25 under the auspices of the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) and the Japan Blind Football Association (JBFA).

Tanaka Holdings has been supporting activities of the JBFA since 2017 as one of its partners and a corporate sponsor of Japan’s women’s national blind football team to help raise awareness about blind football and spread the sport.

In this inaugural 2018 version of the IBSA Blind Football World Grand Prix, Tanaka Holdings participated as the Category Sponsor to support ceremonial operations and provide medals, trophies and shields to teams and players in an effort to contribute to further development of blind football at home and around the world. It also presented gifts of honor to teams that took part in Development Games, wishing for their future success. This international competition was simultaneously held to help strengthen developing teams.

The IBSA Blind Football World Grand Prix was newly organized this year as an event sanctioned by the International Blind Sports Federation with the aim of spreading blind football throughout Asia and the world at large. In this inaugural event, six countries in the world’s top 16 rankings took part in the Elite Class competition. The six countries were divided into two three-team groups, Group A and Group B, to play in a preliminary round-robin phase. The third-placed team from each group moved into the fifth-place playoff. The second-placed teams clashed for third place and the top-placed teams advanced to the final. The final and the third-place playoff were held on March 25, the last day of the Grand Prix. Turkey (2nd in Group A) beat Russia (2nd in Group B) for third place and Argentina (top in Group B) overcame England (top in Group A) to dazzle with the inaugural title. At an ensuing award ceremony, prizes were presented to teams and players. Separately, on the penultimate day of the Grand Prix, Japan defeated France to finish fifth.

(Photo: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/release/201804042631?p=images)

What Tanaka Holdings presented

- Elite Class

-- 1st place: gold medal, winner’s trophy

-- 2nd place: silver medal

-- 3rd place: bronze medal

-- Most valuable player: shield (with Grand Prix logo, gold)

-- Fighting spirit award: shield (with Grand Prix logo, silver)

-- Top goal scorer: shield (with Grand Prix logo)

-- Best goalkeeper: shield (with Grand Prix logo)

- Tanaka Award

-- Tanaka Great Effort Award: trophy

- Others: Vision impairment classifiers

-- Medals

For more information, please visit:

https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/attach/201804042631-O1-BNOe0j5x.pdf

IBSA Blind Football World Grand Prix 2018 official website: http://www.en-wgp-blindfootball.com/

About the Tanaka Kikinzoku group

Since its founding in 1885, the Tanaka Kikinzoku group has built a diversified range of business activities focused on precious metals. It is a leader in Japan in terms of the volume of precious metals handled. Over the course of many years, the Tanaka Kikinzoku group has not only manufactured and sold precious metal products for industrial use, but also provided precious metal items in such forms as jewelry and assets. As precious metal specialists, all group companies within and outside Japan cooperate by combining their manufacturing, sales and technological expertise to offer products and services. Additionally, in order to reinforce its globalization drive, Tanaka Kikinzoku welcomed Metalor Technologies International SA as a member of the group in 2016.

Through its endeavors as precious metal professionals, the Tanaka Kikinzoku group will continue contributing to the development of a comfortable and affluent life.

Websites: http://www.tanaka.co.jp/english/ (group)

         http://pro.tanaka.co.jp/en/ (industrial products)