Satoshi Yoneoka won the bronze medal in the visually impaired class of the Tokyo Paratriathlon Men's Triathlon.
Although he was ranked 11th in the world ranking for participation in the Tokyo Games, the background to winning the medal was the thorough measures against the heat and the reading of the guide Kohei Tsubaki's race.
Looking at the latest tournament, Yoneoka and Tsubaki ranked 4th in the World Series held in Yokohama in May.
In a melee battle between the top and 6th place in just one and a half minutes, Yoneoka went to the actual performance with the expectation that "third place and below will be dumplings".
From there, we have been working on measures against heat.
We turned on the heating in the room, set the temperature to 35 to 36 degrees Celsius, and set the humidity to 80%.
Yoneoka entered the last lap of the run, which was in 3rd place at the Tokyo Paralympics.
It was exactly what we were aiming for.
At this point, Tsubaki, the guide, called out to Yoneoka, "I can go."
At this time, the difference with the 4th place player who chased behind was about 20 seconds.
Tsubaki, who aimed for the Tokyo Olympics in a triathlon but gave up because of illness and became a guide, said, "If the pace in front does not increase, the players in the back will gain momentum. He recalled, saying that the last one was the decisive factor.
I asked them what they got from this tournament.
Yoneoka:
"I hadn't had the experience to do my best, but the result of doing my best to the point where I couldn't do my best led to the medal. It was a tournament that gave me the confidence that I could do my best."
Tsubaki
"Yoneoka You might have thought that it was a tough guide, but I think I was able to achieve my goal as a companion to win medals together and take a big step forward. I want to aim again. "
And the two shook hands, saying" Thank you "to each other.