Tomoki Sato won the second gold medal in this tournament in the 1500m wheelchair class for men on land at the Tokyo Para-Athletics.
He defeated his biggest rival, Raymond Martin of the United States, on the Paralympic stage and became the best in the world in both name and reality.
At the age of 21, Sato was ill and became a wheelchair, and tended to stay home.
At that time, I saw the 2012 London Paralympics.
It was the appearance of players running in a wheelchair.
Having set the goal of his life
to "participate in the Paralympics,"
Sato challenged Martin, the gold medalist of the London 2012 Games, at the Rio de Janeiro Games.
However, the result was a silver medal, losing both at 400 meters and 1500 meters.
Nevertheless, this regret helped Sato grow.
After that, he broke the world record in the second event and won the world championship against Martin.
However, Sato was not satisfied.
"I broke the world record at the Paralympics and won the gold medal. Only when I achieved that, I could truly call myself" the best in the world. ""
The Tokyo Paralympics greeted us with a vow to humiliate our rivals on the big stage.
In the first 400 meters, he caught Martin, who is light in weight and good at start dash, at the very end and won the first gold medal.
And 1500 meters on the 29th.
Immediately after the start, Sato went forward and won the match race without giving up the lead to Martin, who was behind him, and achieved the goal of a gold medal in the second event.
Sato continued to run with the goal of winning his rivals and finally achieved it, but the first thing he said was "disappointing."
"I couldn't break the world record at the
Paralympics
."
"I want to keep the title of the Paralympic Games double crown at the next tournament. I want to clear the world record again."
A strong vow for the Paris tournament three years later.
This harsh desire is the new driving force that takes the champion to the next height.