is a Japanese former sailor, who specialized in the two-person dinghy (

470 __NOTOC__ Year 470 ( CDLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Iordanes (or, less frequently, year 1223 '' ...

) class. Together with her partner

Ai Kondo is a Japanese sports sailor. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, she competed in the women's 470 class with Naoko Kamata, finishing in 14th place. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she competed in the same event, finishing in 14th place again, with he ...

, she was named one of the country's top sailors in the double-handed dinghy for the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

, finishing in a lowly fourteenth place. Outside her Olympic career, Kamata collected a total of two medals (a gold and a silver) in a major international regatta, spanning the World Championships and the Asian Games. A member of Team ABeam's sailing roster, Kamata trained most of her sporting career under the tutelage of her personal coach Kazunori Komatsu. Kamata made her international debut with Kondo at the 2006 ISAF RS:X Worlds in Rizhao,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, picking up a runner-up spot on the women's side after their close duel with the Dutch crew of

Marcelien de Koning Marcelien Bos-de Koning (born 10 May 1978) is a Dutch three-time world champion and Olympic silver medalist sports sailor. She represented her country at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Qingdao. With crew member Lobke Berkhout Bos-de Koning took th ...

and

Lobke Berkhout Lobke Berkhout (born 11 November 1980 in Amsterdam) is a sailor from the Netherlands who represented her country at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Qingdao. With helmsman Marcelien de Koning Berkhout took the silver medal as crew in the Women's 470 ...

for the gold. Later in that year, the Japanese duo capped a successful campaign with their country's only sailing gold in the women's 470 at the Asian Games in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

. At the

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, Kamata qualified for the Japanese sailing squad, as a crew member in the women's 470 class. Despite missing out the podium by the narrowest of margins, she and skipper Kondo managed to secure one of the twelve places offered at the 2007 ISAF Worlds in

Cascais Cascais () is a town and municipality in the Lisbon District of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The municipality has a total of 214,158 inhabitants in an area of 97.40 km2. Cascais is an important tourism in Portugal, tourist de ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. Entered the Qingdao regatta as the newly-crowned world ranking leaders, the Japanese duo had a terrible performance in the initial half of the series with marks lower than the top ten. They staged a magnificent comeback in the second half by winning races 6 and 9, but another technical error on the last leg saw both Kamata and Kondo tumble down the leaderboard to a lowly fourteenth overall with 93 net points.

References

External links

* *
Naoko Kamata
at the Japanese Olympic Committee * 1983 births Living people Japanese female sailors (sport) Olympic sailors of Japan Sailors at the 2008 Summer Olympics – 470 Sailors at the 2006 Asian Games Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for Japan Sportspeople from Kanagawa Prefecture Asian Games medalists in sailing Medalists at the 2005 Summer Universiade {{Japan-yachtracing-bio-stub