Hirokazu Kobayashi

Hirokazu Kobayashi (born 26 May 1986 in Suzaka, Nagano, 176 cm and 69 kg) is a Japanese sepak takraw player. At Matsushogakuen High School he played football, reaching the national high school championship and studying football alone in Germany. At Nippon Sport Science University he joined the sepak takraw club on a friend's invitation and won the Junior Olympics with the individual MVP award in his second year. After graduating he played for SC Tokyo, toured Thailand for two weeks in 2008, and was first selected for the Japan team in May 2009, initially as the tosser before becoming a server around that year; he moved to A.S. Wakaba in 2014. He won doubles bronze at the 2012 King's Cup World Championship and at the 2016 5 Nations Championship, played at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, and won Super Division titles at the Niigata Open in 2013 and 2014 and at the All Japan Championship in 2016.