Goalball with my teacher's dream Goalball Akina Sato, August 20, 10:39
Goalball girls are expected to win medals at the Tokyo Paralympic Games next year. Akina Sato, the youngest 17-year-old Japanese nationally designated player, is aiming for the first Paralympic Games with the dream of his teacher.
(Maebashi station caster Akiho Yoshikawa)
The goal ball is a ball with a bell, and a visually impaired player plays with sound. Fight 3 to 3 and compete for the number that entered the goal in 12 minutes each in the first half.
Akina Sato who talks about the attraction of the competition, “Even if you are blind, I am a blindfold because everyone is blindfolded as an eyeshade, you can only rely on sound in the court.”
He is the youngest 17-year-old player in Japan, and he attends a school for the blind in Gunma Prefecture.
Three years ago, Sato was a junior high school second grader, and there was an event that led to the Paralympics. A blind school teacher, Yuka Naoi, touched the Paralympic medal.
Naoi is the captain of the Japan representative of the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games. In this tournament, Japan won a bronze medal, the first medal in Japan for a goalball.
Naoi recalled the state of Sato at the time when he won the bronze medal, and said, “Akina was joyfully laughing.
From this point on, Sato began to think that “I want to win a medal.
For the Paralympic Games, Sato is aiming to acquire the technique called “Kunoji Run”. Instead of running straight, run up like drawing a “Ku”, then throw the ball towards the opponent's goal. This attack attacks the opponent's defense.
As for the Japan national team of the goalball, 6 players will be selected from among the players designated for enhancement around March next year.
“I want to become a player who can be selected as a starting member by practicing more and more with the aim of becoming the Tokyo Paralympics,” says Sato.
First of all, I will aim to be a representative with my thoughts on the teacher who gave me the dream.