Biography
As a 13-year-old, Itakura was into swimming. She was good enough to participate in the Junior Olympics. After retiring from swimming, she took up bowling upon the recommendation of her mother. She was coached by Yoshikazu Nishida. While in school, she captured three high school tournaments, including the 1993 17th All-Japan High School Championship. After graduating from high school, Itakura planned on working in the bowling business, starting off as an office lady at a bowling center. In 1997, at the age of 22 years, she gave up her job when she was selected as a member of the Japan national team. Between 1999 and 2000, Itakura competed in various professional and amateur tournaments. She competed in the NHK Cup Japan All-Star Championships. And, she became the first and only Japanese to win the AMF World Cup (2001). Itakura became a professional in 2003, becoming the first bowler to enter the JPBA under a waiver, based on her success as an amateur, thereby bypassing the qualifying stages (usually, a bowler has to qualify via a series of difficult tests, which for many bowlers takes multiple years before they are successful.) In 2011, Itakura-pro finished the JPBA season 24th in points (980), 19th in scoring average (206.21), and 24th in money with 784,000 yen.Major accomplishments
Amateur * 1993 - 17th All-Japan High School Championship (winner) * 1999 - 33rd Japan Invitational Bowling Championships (winner) * 1999 - 12th All-Japan Ladies Tournament, Youth Division (winner) * 2000 - 34th Japan Invitational Bowling Championships (winner) * 2001 - 37thExternal links