Tokyo Giants baseball player Atsushi Kita (centre) with the U12 and U15 Fiji Baseball players after their friendly match at Albert Park in Suva. Picture: JOVESA NAISUA/FILE

FORMER Yoimuri Giants professional baseball player Atsushi Kita ended his one-week clinic with Fiji baseball players and ardent followers yesterday at Albert Park in Suva.

Members of the Fiji under-12 and U15 baseball teams were in for a treat this past week learning from one of Japan’s finest product of the game.

“This was possible through a joint collaboration between Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) and the Tokyo-based Yoimuri Giants, a professional Japanese baseball club,” said Takao Mochida, president of the Fiji Baseball and Softball Association.

“The Yoimuri Giants has been bringing awareness in baseball all over the world, through their institution, the Giants Academy.”

Mochida said that in Japan, professional players when retired continue to give back to the sport through coaching roles.

“We have turned our focus from the senior level to bringing and uplifting the sport from the grassroots level.”

The one-week clinic provided by Kita saw refresher training courses with basic skills reworked.

The FBS were also given sporting uniforms as well as sporting gear from their counter-parts in JICA and the Yoimuri Giants Academy.

The clinic ended yesterday with a friendly game between the national team and the Japanese community in Suva.