Shizuka Narahara

Shizuka Narahara
Nation:	Japan
Date of birth:	1928
Place of birth:	Mihara
Playing hand:	Right handed
How to play:	Penholder

Shizuka Narahara ( Japanese 楢 原 静 , Narahara Shizuka , married Yamawaki ( 山 脇 静 , Yamawaki Shizuka ); * 1928 in Mihara ) is a Japanese table tennis player . In 1952 she became world champion in doubles and team competitions.

Career

Shizuka Narahara won the Japanese Singles Championship in 1950 . She took part in the World Championships in 1952, 1955 and 1956. She achieved her greatest success at the 1952 World Cup in Bombay when she became world champion in doubles with Tomie Nishimura . They defeated the English Diane Rowe / Rosalind Rowe in the final . In addition, Shizuka Narahara won another gold medal with the Japanese team.

At the 1955 World Cup , she won bronze in doubles with Yoshiko Tanaka and in mixed with Toshiaki Tanaka and silver in the team competition.

At the Asian Championships in 1953 she reached the semi-finals in doubles and mixed. In the ITTF world rankings , she was ranked seventh in October 1952.

Private

Shizuka Narahara attended a school in Hiroshima, where she also witnessed the atomic bomb being dropped in 1945. After attending school, she learned home economics. In 1952 she married Yoshiaka Yamawaki. Her younger sister Shizuyo ( 楢 原 静 世 ), married Nakajō / Chūjō ( 中 条 静 世 ) was also a table tennis player.

Results from the ITTF database

Association	event	year	place	country	singles	Double	Mixed	team
JPN	Asian Championship TTFA	1953	Tokyo	JPN	last 16	Semifinals	Semifinals
JPN	World Championship	1956	Tokyo	JPN	last 16	Quarter finals	last 16
JPN	World Championship	1955	Utrecht	NED	last 64	Semifinals	Semifinals	2
JPN	World Championship	1952	Bombay	IND	last 32	gold	last 16	1

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ITTF world rankings from 1947 to 2001 (Excel; 171 kB) (accessed on August 15, 2014)
2. ↑ 「卓 球 は 血 と 魂 だ」 第二 章 二 - ロ 、 相互 信 頼 が 基本 . (No longer available online.) In: Takurepo.com. July 1, 2013, archived from the original on April 25, 2015 ; Retrieved August 16, 2014 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Shizuka Narahara results from the ITTF database on ittf.com (accessed August 15, 2014)

Web links

• The story of Tomie and Shizuka in: Table Tennis, November 1953, pages 43-44 (accessed August 15, 2014)