Hiroyuki Bamba ( Japanese 番 場 裕 之 , Bamba Hiroyuki ; also Hiroyuki Banba and Hiroyuki Maruyama ( 丸山 裕 之 , Maruyama Hiroyuki ); born May 11, 1976 ) is a Japanese skeleton pilot .
Hiroyuki Bamba lives in Nagano and has been doing skeleton since 1997. Since 2000 he has been a member of the national team of Japan. He contested his first international race in 2002 as part of the Skeleton America's Cup in Calgary , where he finished seventh. In January 2003 the first World Cup race followed in Igls , which Bamba finished in 36th place. In the next race he won his first World Cup points as 14th in St. Moritz and in February he took part in the 2003 Skeleton World Championships in his hometown Nagano and was 16th between December 2003 and December 2006, apart from six World Cup races ( in the overall ranking of the 2004/05 season the Japanese was 41st) in November and December 2004, internationally only in the America's Cup, where he was often able to place in single-digit ranks. The best result was a second place behind Caleb Smith in a race in Calgary in November 2006. Since December 2007 Bamba has been competing internationally exclusively in the newly created Skeleton Intercontinental Cup . Often results are in the top 20, more rarely single-digit placements. Best results in the racing series were two seventh places in Park City and Lake Placid in January 2008 . In the 2007/08 season he was ninth overall. For the 2010 Olympic Winter Games , Bamba was qualified according to the world rankings, but the Japanese federation nominated the lower- placed Shinsuke Tayama in his place . Nationally he won the bronze medal at the Japanese championships in 1998 behind Kazuhiro Koshi and Yoshiharu Nakata , in 2002 silver behind Yuzuru Hanyūda and in 2009 the title.
Japan
