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Kae Kurahashi won 2nd place in WOMEN'S CUP in Paris, France

December 13, 2024

TOKYO-Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL; President: Takeshi Hashimoto, Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo) is pleased to announce that Kae Kurahashi, a wheelchair rugby player belonging to MOL's Human Resources Department, has won 2nd place in the WOMEN'S CUP held in Paris, France from 4th to 7th December, and has been selected as the best player in the 0.5 category.
Although wheelchair rugby is a typically mixed-gender sport, the WOMEN'S CUP has been held as a women's wheelchair rugby-specific event since 2015. It aims to promote the participation of women with disabilities in sports and to enable female athletes to fully realize their potential. Female players from around the world gather to raise awareness of female wheelchair rugby players, and two Japanese players, including Kurahashi, participated in the event.
Japan competed as a mixed team with Canada, Switzerland, South Korea and Germany, and finished in 2nd place among the other participating countries.

【Comment from Kae Kurahashi】

I have been participating in the event since 2017 and will continue to work hard to raise awareness of women's wheelchair rugby, with the goal of enabling Japan to compete as a team and increasing the number of players who can join and play together.

Wheelchair rugby is a sport in which players with different degrees of disabilities compete on the same court and improve their team strength by combining the individual strengths exhibited in their respective roles, making this sport the very embodiment of diversity.
The experience session provided an opportunity for MOL Group employees to discover the excitement of wheelchair rugby and gain a new appreciation for the power of diversity and teamwork.
MOL will continue to contribute to the further development of wheelchair rugby in the and to the creation of an environment where diverse MOL Group employees from around the world, regardless of nationality, gender, age, or disability, can exercise their abilities and create new value in a rewarding work environment. The company aims to foster a workplace where all the employees can work together to achieve their full potential.

【Awards】

Rank Year Events
1st 2018 IWRF World Championship
3rd 2021 Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games
3rd 2022 IWRF World Championship
1st 2023 WWR Asia-Oceania Championship
1st 2024 Paris 2024 Paralympic Games

Kae Kurahashi was born in 1990 in Hyogo, Japan. She was injured in a trampoline accident when she was a university student, and after undergoing rehabilitation, she was introduced to wheelchair rugby. In 2016, she joined MOL and was assigned to the Human Capital Management Division. In 2017, she was selected as the first and only female member of the Japanese national wheelchair rugby team and helped them achieve 1st place in the World Championship in 2018 and a bronze medal in the 2021 Tokyo Paralympic Games. She went on to win a gold medal at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

Kae Kurahashi OFFICIAL WEBSITE: KAE KURAHASHI OFFICIAL SITE | Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (mol.co.jp)