The "Oita International Wheelchair Marathon" was held in Oita City, and Marcel Hug of Switzerland, who won the gold medal of the Tokyo Paralympics, won the world record for the first time in 22 years, and Tomoki Suzuki broke the Asian record and took second place. It has entered.
The 40th Oita International Wheelchair Marathon is a wheelchair-only race in which world-class athletes compete, and it was held for the first time in two years due to the influence of the new coronavirus.
The tournament held in Oita City was changed to a flat course with little height difference, and 131 people from four countries participated in the two divisions of marathon and half marathon.
In the marathon race, Fugu, who won the gold medal at the Tokyo Paralympics, and Suzuki, who was in 7th place, came out after a kilometer.
The race progressed at a pace that exceeded the world record, and Fugu won the championship for the third time in a row and the ninth time, with Fugu spurting away Suzuki at around 37km.
The time was 1 hour 17 minutes 47 seconds, which was a new world record of 1 hour 20 minutes 14 seconds marked by Swiss Heinz Frei at this 1999 tournament, which was rewritten for the first time in 22 years and shortened by nearly two and a half minutes at a stretch.
Fugu said, "I feel like I'm dreaming. I'm in good condition and I think I was able to run in perfect conditions."
Suzuki finished second in Japan's new record of 1 hour 18 minutes 37 seconds, shortening the record set by Kota Hokinoue in 2013 by more than 2 minutes and breaking the Asian record.
Suzuki said, "I approached Fugu with the feeling that I couldn't let go of anything. I felt the height of the world wall at the Tokyo Paralympics, but I've never been able to do something like this. I don't think I was wrong in what I did. "
For the girls, Tsubasa Kina won the championship in 1 hour 40 minutes 13 seconds, and Tatyana McFadden of the United States was second.