'The Flower of Sports for the Disabled' The 2025 KWBL Wheelchair Basketball League will open at Jamsil Indoor Gymnasium in Seoul on the 4th.
A total of six teams, including Coway Blue Wheels, Chuncheon Tigers, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, Goyang Holt, Daegu Metropolitan City Hall, and Mugunghwa Electronics, will participate this season to continue their six-month long journey. Regular league games will be held in July, August-September, and September-October in a three-round full-league manner, and will be held in major cities across the country, including Seoul (Jamsil Indoor Gymnasium), Suwon (Seosuwon Chilbo Gymnasium), Goyang (Goyang Holt Gymnasium), Jeju (Jeju Halla Gymnasium), Daegu (Daegu Civic Gymnasium), and Chuncheon (Chuncheon Hoban Gymnasium).
The opening game of the first round is a rival match between Coway Blue Wheels and Chuncheon Tigers, which will be held at 2 p.m. on the 4th. Last year, it was a three-way match between Coway, Jeju, and Chuncheon, but this year, as Kim Dong-hyun, the ace of Jeju's national team, is out of the team's power, the two-way structure of Coway-Chuncheon is likely.
Coway Blue Wheels, led by head coach Kim Young-moo, is the strongest player in the league. Last year, he beat Jeju Special Self-Governing Province to become an integrated champion and won five championships, half of the 10 years of championship games. After achieving the feat of winning all four championships last year, he also achieved his third consecutive win at the Holt National Wheelchair Basketball Championship in April this year. The biggest strength is the record of veteran aces such as Kim Sang-yeol, Oh Dong-seok, Kim Ho-yong, Yang Dong-gil, and Kwak Jun-sung 'National University's veteran aces, even skills, eye breathing, and strong teamwork. The squad change is not big either. The only power leak is that Lim Dong-joo, who won the BDH Chairman's Cup 'Oulim 3X3 Wheelchair Basketball' last year, played on loan in Goyang Holt with a job.
The Chuncheon Tigers, led by head coach Cho Dong-ki of the 'Men's Basketball Legend', also have the strongest double guns in the league 'Lee Yoon-joo, Cho Seung-hyun' this year. Chuncheon, which raised the atmosphere through off-season training in Tokyo, Japan in March, will retake the top spot for the first time in two years after winning the integrated championship in 2023. Captain Lee Yun-joo "I am ready for physical strength, organizational strength, and tactics. I'll play every game like a final and move on to the championship" expressed his determination. After the league opener between Coway Blue Wheels and Chuncheon Tigers, the game between Mugunghwa Electronics and Goyang Holt at 4 p.m. and Daegu Metropolitan City Hall and Jeju Special Self-Governing Province at 6 p.m. will follow.
Chuncheon Tigers-Mugunghwa Electronics will play at 1 p.m. on the 5th, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province-Koyang Holt at 3 p.m., Daegu Metropolitan City Hall-Coway Blue Wheels at 5 p.m., Jeju Special Self-Governing Province-Chuncheon Tigers at 11 a.m. on the 6th, Goyang Holt-Daegu City Hall at 1 p.m., and Coway Blue Wheels-Mugunghwa Electronics at 3 p.m.
After the end of the third round, the first-place team in the regular league will go straight to the championship game, and the second-third-place team will determine the team that will advance to the championship game through the best-of-three playoff. The playoffs will be held at Goyang Holt Sports and Culture Center for three days from Nov. 28, and the championship game will be held at Namyangju Sports and Culture Center for three days from Dec. 2. Jeon Kyung-gi, including the opening ceremony on the 4th, will be broadcast live on the Korean Wheelchair Basketball Federation TV YouTube channel.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
