Sendai - Sports

Sports

Although the Lotte Orions briefly used Sendai as a temporary home for the franchise from 1973 to 1977, the city was largely ignored by professional sports until 1994. In that year, the Tohoku Electric Power football team was changed into a club team, Brummel Sendai, with the goal of eventually being promoted into the J. League. The team achieved this goal when the J. League expanded in 1999 with the creation of a second division. The name of the team was simultaneously changed to Vegalta Sendai.

In 2005, the number of professional sports teams based in Sendai suddenly increased to three. The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles was introduced as a new Pacific League baseball franchise after widely publicized turmoil involving the merger of the Kintetsu Buffaloes and the Orix Blue Wave developed into the first strike in Nippon Professional Baseball. Additionally, the Japan Basketball League, which began its inaugural season in November 2005, included the Sendai 89ers among its first six teams.

Annual sporting events include the Sendai Cup, an international football tournament for U-18 teams, and the Sendai International Half Marathon. In 2006 of the Sendai International half marathon, Mizuki Noguchi, who won the women's marathon Gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, took part in and won the race in a surprising course record.

Various sporting venues can be found in Sendai, such as Miyagi Stadium (venue of 2002 FIFA World Cup), Sendai Stadium, Miyagi Baseball Stadium, Sendai City Gymnasium. The city is also known as the origin of figure skating in Japan, and 2006 Olympic gold medalist Shizuka Arakawa trained in Sendai as she was growing up. Tohoku Fukushi University and Sendai Ikuei Gakuen High School are well known for their strong sports programs, the latter for baseball.

In 2006, Sendai hosted some games of the Basketball World Championship 2006.