Kento Miyaura (宮浦健人, born 22 February 1999) is a Japanese male

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

player from

Kumamoto City is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2. had a population of 1,461,000, ...

, on the island of

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surroun ...

. Currently, he plays in

LNV Ligue A Masculine LNV Ligue A Masculine (LAM) is the top men's volleyball league in France, established in 1938. It is governed by the Ligue Nationale de Volley (LNV), an independent body that runs French professional volleyball under delegation from the French ...

for

Paris Volley Paris Volley is a professional men's volleyball club based in Paris, France. They compete in the top flight of French volleyball, Ligue A. The club was founded in 1998 from the merger of the volleyball section of ''Paris Université Club'' (PUC) ...

. He used to be the captain of Japan U-19 team and

Waseda University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902. The university has numerou ...

's club.

Career

Elementary

Miyaura started playing volleyball in the second grade of elementary school. He was slender and lacked power, so he didn't get the opportunity to participate in the game until the 4th grade, where he still played as a substitute and was told, "You are not an ace".

High School

He was asked to create a new junior-level club at Chinzei High School. At the time, there were just two players in the club, so they could not participate in any competitions, but he always practiced every day. Then, in his senior high school years, he was bothered by an injury that forced him to leave the team. In his second year, he was assigned as captain of the team, but he often caused trouble for the team due to his lack of ability. That was a very hard time in his volleyball life, so he thought about quitting. As time passed, the hardships made him stronger. However, he and the team suffered from the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes, which closed their training gym. After a month, they had to find a new training place, but the environment was not good. So, as a result, the team won the runner-up place at the All Japan high school volleyball championship.

College

After high school graduation, Miyaura joined

. He was called to the

Japan men's national under-19 volleyball team The Japan men's national under-19 volleyball team represents Japan in men's under-19 volleyball events, it is controlled and managed by the Japan Volleyball Association, Japanese Volleyball Association that is a member of Asian volleyball body Asi ...

for the first time and later became captain of the team. In his second year, he considered himself stronger in physical terms, so he started to do weight training and communicated with the team's staff about injury prevention. Furthermore, he also changed his serving style from float serve to jump serve, adding more effectiveness to the team. In the next year, he became a big player on the team. Miyaura was assigned to be a national representative at every junior level: the U-19 team and the U-21 team in 2017, the U-23 team, and the Universiade team in 2019, respectively. In his final year in college, he was a captain and led the team to victory in the

All Japan Intercollegiate Volleyball Championship All Japan Intercollegiate Volleyball Championship (全日本バレーボール大学男女選手権大会 ''Zen Nippon Barēbōru Daigaku Danjo Senshuken Taikai'') is an annual nationwide intercollegiate volleyball tournament. It is the largest sca ...

, making Waseda University win this tournament five years consecutively. Then, in the 2020–21 season, he joined the

JTEKT Stings is a men's volleyball team based in the city of Kariya, Japan. It competes in the V.League, the highest volleyball league in Japan. The club was founded in 1958 and the current owner of the club is JTEKT. History JTEKT Stings was founded as ...

V.League 1 The V.League 1 ( vi, Giải bóng đá vô địch quốc gia, lit=National Football League), also called Night Wolf V.League 1 due to sponsorship reasons, is the top professional Association football, football league in Vietnam, controlled by ...

Japan Men's National Team

2021 - 2022

In 2021, he was called up for the senior national team for the first time, and his first competition as a senior is the 2021 Asian Men's Volleyball Championship. The Japanese team finished as runners-up; he scored a total of 76 points and received the ''Best Opposite Spiker'' award. On October 15, he played his first full game in the V.League as part of the starting line-up against the

JT Thunders is a men's volleyball team based in Hiroshima city, Hiroshima, Japan. It plays in V.Premier League. The owner of the club is Japan Tobacco. History The club was founded in 1931 as a club of the Ministry of Finance Japan Hiroshima Monopoly ...

, which JTEKT lost to in 4 sets with a 1–3 record. He became a key player for the team since he helped the team score and became the top scorer in almost every match. On January 16, 2022, JTEKT was in 7th place, and after losing in straight 5 matches, Miyaura helped the team win against the Toray Arrows in 4 sets, with a 3–1 record at home. In this game, Miyaura became JTEkT's top scorer, recording 30 points, which later made him emotional. JTEKT Stings ended up in 7th place in the league. Miyaura was in 5th place in the top scorers category, the 1st among Japanese, with 651 points after finishing the final stage.

2022 - 2023

Miyaura was back as a member of the Japanese National Team and went to compete in the 2022 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League. In the first week of the league, Miyaura scored 20 points in total, as he played as a starter against the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, which Japan later lost to. In almost the last match of the third week, Miyaura, as a starter, showed his abilities tallying 17 points in 15 attacks and 2 aces, which lead the team to a 4-set victory over

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

with a 1–3 record. On August 2, it was announced that he would be playing for the Polish Club PSG Stal Nysa in the 2022-2023 season. In Japan's match against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in the VNL 2023, Miyaura played as a substitute, helping the team with a come from behind 4-set win against France with a 3-1 record, where with his high success rate in attacks and strong serve, scored 13 points in 10 attacks, 1 block, and 2 service aces.

2023 - 2024

On June 16,

announced that Kento Miyaura would join the club for the 2023-2024 season.

Clubs

* (2015–2018) *

(2017–2020) *

(2020–2022) * PSG Stal Nysa (2022–2023) *

(2023–Present)

National teams

(2017–2018) ** 2017 Asian Boys' U19 Volleyball Championship ** 2018 Asian Men's U20 Volleyball Championship *

Japan men's national under-21 volleyball team The Japan men's national under-21 volleyball team represents Japan in men's under-21 volleyball events, it is controlled and managed by the Japanese Volleyball Association that is a member of Asian volleyball body Asian Volleyball Confederation ...

(2017) **

2017 FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship The 2017 FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship was the nineteenth edition of the FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship, contested by the men's national teams under the age of 21 of the members of the FIVB, the sport's global gover ...

* Japan men's national under-23 volleyball team (2019) ** 2019 Asian Men's U23 Volleyball Championship * Japan universiade national team ** 2019 Summer Universiade Tournament *

Japan men's national volleyball team The Japan men's national volleyball team ( ja, 男子バレーボール日本代表) represents Japan in international volleyball competitions and friendly matches, governed by Japan Volleyball Association. Their nickname is "''RYUJIN NIPPON (� ...

(2021–present)

Awards

Individual

* 2017 Asian Boys' U19 Volleyball Championship — MVP * 2020 All Japan Intercollegiate Volleyball Championship — MVP *2020 All Japan Intercollegiate Volleyball Championship — Best Server * 2021 Asian Men's Volleyball Championship — Best Opposite Spiker * 2021-2022 V.League Division 1 - Fair play award

Club teams

*2020 All Japan Intercollegiate Volleyball Championship — Simple cup icon

Champion, with

* 2020-21 the Japanese Emperor's Cup — Simple cup icon