Naoko Azegami

Naoko Azegami
Association	Japan
birthday	29th January 1985 (age 35)
place of birth	Nakano , Japan
Career
job	Soldier
society	Tōsenkyō
Debut in the European Cup / IBU Cup	2008
Debut in the World Cup	2009
status	not active
End of career	2013 (biathlon) 2017 (cross-country skiing)
World Cup balance
last change: September 11, 2019

Naoko Azegami ( Japanese 畔 上 尚 子 , Azegami Naoko ; born January 29, 1985 in Nakano ) is a former Japanese biathlete and cross-country skier .

Before Azegami switched to biathlon, she was active as a cross-country skier. At first she denied until the beginning of 2004 only 5-kilometer race as part of the Continental Cup and FIS races here always achieved results between tenth and 20th at Junior World Championships in 2004 from Stryn the Japanese reached the 41st place in Freestyle races over five kilometers, 43rd place in the sprint and in the mass start race over 15 kilometers, and came ninth with the Japanese cross-country relay. At the Winter Universiade 2005 in Innsbruck and Seefeld in Tirol , she was 38th in the mass start race over 15 kilometers, 46th in the freestyle race over five kilometers and 52nd in the sprint. This was followed by further appearances in the Far East Cup and FIS races until 2007 , where Azegami was able to achieve single-digit placements several times.

As usual in Japan, she is a biathlete of the "winter combat training unit" (Tōsenkyō) of the ground self-defense forces . She also studied at Waseda University . Naoko Azegami competed in her first international biathlon race in 2008 as part of the IBU Cup in Obertilliach . After missing the first points in the individual as 54th, she won them as 31st of the sprint. In Martell , she achieved 12th place in her third race, a sprint. Only a little later she made her debut in Oberhof in the Biathlon World Cup and was 83 in her first sprint. It was also her best result in the World Cup so far. After further appearances in the sprint races in Ruhpolding and Antholz , the 2009 Biathlon World Championships in Pyeongchang were the highlight of the season. In the individual she reached her worst World Cup result in 103rd place, in the sprint she reached 89th place. With Fuyuko Suzuki , Megumi Izumi and Itsuka Yahata , Azegami reached 16th place as the final runner in the relay competition. After the 2012/13 season she returned to cross-country skiing.

From 2013 she was back on the road as a cross-country skier and started again mainly in the Far East Cup until 2017. In January 2015 she was able to celebrate two third places (over five kilometers in the free technique and in the sprint) and on January 7, 2016, her only victory at this level in a sprint race in Sapporo . In the 2015/16 season she also achieved her best overall result in the Far East Cup with fifth place. In 2017 she finally ended her cross-country skiing career.

Success in cross-country skiing

Victories in Continental Cup races

No.	date	place	discipline	series
1.	January 7, 2016	Sapporo	Sprint freestyle	Far East Cup

World Cup statistics biathlon

The table shows all placements (depending on the year, including the Olympic Games and World Championships).

• 1st - 3rd Place: Number of podium placements
• Top 10: Number of placements in the top ten (including podium)
• Points ranks: Number of placements within the point ranks (including podium and top 10)
• Starts: Number of races run in the respective discipline

placement	singles	sprint	persecution	Mass start	Season	total
1st place
2nd place
3rd place
Top 10
Scoring					1	1
Starts	1	4th			1	6th
Status: after the 2008/2009 season

Web links

• Naoko Azegami in the database of the International Ski Federation (English)
• Naoko Azegami in the database of the IBU (English)