The qualifying league for the Tokyo Paralympics and Boccia groups began on the 2nd, and Japan, which aims for the first gold medal, had a total record of 2 wins and 1 loss.

Boccia at the Tokyo Paralympics is a competition designed for people with severe disabilities such as cerebral palsy, where they throw red and blue balls to compete for how much they can get closer to the white target ball "Jackball". ..



At the Ariake Gymnastics Center in Koto-ku, Tokyo, the qualifying league for groups and pairs will start on the 2nd, and 5 teams will be divided into 2 groups to play round-robin, and the top 2 teams will advance to the semi-finals.



Of these, Japan, which is second in the world ranking in the group, won the silver medal at the Rio de Janeiro tournament, aiming for the first gold medal in this tournament, and played against Slovakia, which is the tenth in the world in the first match.



In the first end, Japan took the initiative from the beginning, and Yuriko Fujii, the oldest player in the team, took the initiative in the first ball and participated in three consecutive tournaments. I did.



And captain Hidetaka Sugimura, who won the gold medal individually on the 1st, pulled the ball to the target ball one after another with accurate control and took the lead with 3 points.



At the 3rd end, which was greeted 3 to 1, Takayuki Hirose, an ace player, moved the ball well with a powerful pitch to add 1 point, and after that he continued to score points and won 8 to 2.



In the second round that followed, he won the bronze medal Portugal 5-4 in the previous tournament in 7th place in the world and won 2 consecutive victories.



However, in the third round, he lost to Korea Rep., Who ranked 6th in the world, 5-6, resulting in a total of 2 wins and 1 loss.



On the 3rd, Japan will face Brazil, which is the third largest in the world, in the remaining one match of the qualifying league.



Meanwhile, in the pair's qualifying league, Japan beat Australia 3-2 in the first round in the most disabled class, but lost to Hong Kong in the second round at the tiebreaker end after 4-4. It was 1 win and 1 loss.



In the class of disabilities other than cerebral palsy, the first match was 1-7 to Hong Kong, and the second match was 3-7 to the Russian Paralympic Committee, resulting in two consecutive losses.



In the pair qualifying league, Japan will play two games each on the 3rd.