IHF mourns loss of Dr Konishi

It is with great sadness that the IHF has learnt of the passing of Dr Hiroki Konishi, President of the Japanese Wheelchair Handball Federation. He was 90 years old.

Dr Konishi led distinguished careers in both academia and handball.

His academic career started in 1963 when he took a job as a part-time lecturer at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine. Over the next 40 years, he worked at a variety of academic institutions across Japan, including further roles in Kyoto and in the prefectures of Hyogo (Kinki University of Welfare), Okayama (Kawasaki University of Medical Welfare) and Wakayama (Medical University).

In handball, his first role was also in 1963, when the then 31-year-old joined the technical committee at the Japan Handball Association (JHA) and became director. He would then move through a number of roles and positions at the JHA, including those of Managing Director and Councillor as well as various roles at the Kyoto Prefecture Handball Association. 

He was also active as a coach, with one career highlight being his coaching role at the 6th World Student Men's Handball Championship Universiade, held in Japan.

But it was Wheelchair Handball for which Dr Konishi made his name globally, initially creating it in 2003, then developing the Japan Wheelchair Handball Federation into a world-leading authority on the sport, helping to spread it throughout the world, including sharing his knowledge to the European Handball Federation (EHF) at their first-ever Wheelchair Handball Seminar in 2008 and working closely for many years with IHF Council and Executive Member and IHF Wheelchair Handball Working Group Chairman, Frantisek Taborsky.

Throughout his handball career he provided invaluable, educational insights into Japanese handball to the rest of the world, while bringing knowledge from outside of Japan into the country and this work saw him awarded the prestigious ‘Kyokujitu Soukou’ award.

IHF President Dr Hassan Moustafa, on behalf of the global handball family, would like to send his deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of Dr Konishi and thank him for his trailblazing work.

Photo: Japan Wheelchair Handball Federation