Keiichi Kimura won the gold medal and Uchu Tomita won the silver medal in the Tokyo Paralympic Swimming Men's 100m Butterfly Visually Impaired Class.
Kimura is the second medal in this tournament and is the first to win a gold medal in four Paralympic tournaments.
Tomita, who participated in the Paralympics for the first time, won the third medal in this tournament.
Kimura's long-sought gold medal at the 4th Paralympic Games
Kimura, a Japanese ace who won the long-sought gold medal in the men's 100-meter butterfly and the most visually impaired class. Originally from Ritto City, Shiga Prefecture, Kimura, who lost his eyesight due to illness at the age of two, developed his talent by swimming, which he started in the fourth grade of elementary school.
I have never seen a person swimming, but my own idea is, "If the water moves behind you, your body will move forward. You can scratch and kick the place where the water goes to the back." We have spent 20 years creating a swim based on.
It was the only Paralympic Games that participated in four consecutive tournaments, including this one, and did not reach the gold medal. After the last Rio de Janeiro Games, where he won four medals, he cried, "I wanted one gold medal rather than four medals."
For Kimura, the gold medal was "a proof of all that he has continued to swim, and what he is looking for as a result," he decided to attend the Tokyo tournament.
In order to win the gold medal, we narrowed down the participation events from the 5th to the 3rd event in Rio de Janeiro, and positioned it as a step to the 100-meter butterfly that will be held on the final day of the swimming competition.
In the 200m individual medley on the 30th of last month, which was 5th place without reaching the medal, I confirmed how to enter the first half of the butterfly in the first 50m.
In the 100-meter breaststroke that won the silver medal, I checked the speed and endurance when swimming a distance of 100 meters.
Then, in the 100-meter butterfly that was greeted, in the qualifying held in the morning, he advanced to the final with a good time at the top of the whole, while saying "I failed to start". After the race, Kimura said, "I've been doing my best for this day. I'm very nervous because I feel that this day is really coming, but I'll do my best to make the best race." Five years after the Rio de Janeiro Games, the final stage won the long-sought gold medal in the best race.
The ace of Japanese para-swimming proved that the swimming that he had created over 20 years was not wrong, in the best form of a gold medal at the tournament held in his own country.