Take, Nishibori Takemi, 西堀健実 is probably the reason that I started to write more posts about the Japanese beach volley teams, after my brief encounter with them last year here in Stavanger.. 
After that I have tried to leave some comments in her blog but I admit that the language limitations are huge.. my non-existent Japanese on one side and I think a very basic English on her side!! Besides, I have never seen her replying the fan in the blog.. for example different from another Japanese player, Kusuhara Chiaki, 楠原千秋, who spends time in replying in her blog too! Even to my basic babelfished comments.. when not in English ( アンドレア it’s me 
)
Anyway, Take is the less known part of the team Asao Miwa, 浅尾美和 – Nishibori Take, 西堀健実 being Miwa quite famous as the pretty model who’s also a professional beach volley player with many supporters (and I admit, she’s very cute!).
But even with no real contact after one year of blogging also aobut them, I still remember an incredible nice smile that Take directed to me here in Stavanger.. no, it was not love at first sight, but I liked that girl! And I liked a lot also the hard work they did every evening in Stavanger, even if they had lost very early in the tournament..
And this hard work payed back, because yesterday Take & Miwa acceeded to the Main Draw of the FIVB tournament in Portugal. That was the first time for Take and for both of them as a team (Miwa has entered Main Draw three times during 2004-2005 with other partners, more experienced players like: Shinako Tanaka, Ryo Tokuno, Rii Seike). It has been a very exciting qualification. They won against 2 other Japanese teams: Makabe Miho, 真壁美穂 - Oguri Sachie, 小栗幸恵 in the country quota match and next the higher ranked couple Urata Satoko, 浦田聖子 – Suzuki Hiromi, 鈴木洋美. I guess anyway that the most difficult step has been the following one, when they defeated the Canadian team Mondor - Boileau, the match you are afraid to win:
55 12-Jun 17:00 Mondor-Boileau CAN [26] Asao-Take JPN [23] 0-2 (12-21, 12-21) 0:30
The Main Draw tournament ended also in the same day, yesterday, June 13th, 2007.. with an impossible to win match (for now) against Larissa - Juliana, number 1 Brasilian team, seed 2, one of the best team in the circuit (Juliana and Larissa set a SWATCH-FIVB World Tour record for single-season earnings for both men and women teams with $409,750 in winnings in 2005 as the pair claimed six gold medals and 14 podium placements in 15 international starts).
They ended up ranked in the 25th position, after losing against Schwaiger - Schwaiger, from Austria, a team maybe not much superior to Take and Miwa, but with a far better seeding start position (#15, index 11.0) so that they did not have to go through qualification tournament.
But it was a great day anyway, and for that, タケさん：
おめでとうございます
congratulations!!!
