Atsushi Yamamoto jumped 6 meters and 75 centimeters to update his personal best by 5 centimeters in the Tokyo Para-Athletics long jump prosthesis class, but he finished 4th and did not win a medal for the second consecutive tournament.
Junta Kosuda jumped 5 meters and 95 centimeters to update his personal best and finished 7th.
Yamamoto's own leap to popularize parasports
Although he did not win a medal, he is in 4th place, which leads to the spread of parasports.
Atsushi Yamamoto has been a leader in para-athletics since becoming the first track and field athlete with artificial legs at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.
When I went to schools in Japan and overseas, I told children the coolness of the carbon fiber prosthesis jumping competition and increased the number of fans. Recently, I started to teach young athletes and continued to lead the spread of parasports. rice field.
"I came to the Rio de Janeiro Games just because I wanted to win a gold medal. At the Tokyo Paralympics," I want you to know about parasports "is the best. Medals are a means, not an end,"
says Yamamoto.
However, contrary to that wish, the corona wreck caused the tournaments and events to be canceled or postponed one after another, making it difficult to promote dissemination efforts.
And, in principle, the Tokyo Paralympics will be unattended.
I couldn't help but show my own leap to the spectators who filled the dreamed national stadium.
Even so, it was the Tokyo Paralympic Games that I decided to face, "It is important to think that various people are watching at places other than the venue, and I want to show a performance that can deliver many messages."
I couldn't get the medal I had longed for, but I updated my personal best on the big stage.
It is the 4th place that brightly illuminates the future of parasports beyond medals.