The Tokyo Para-Athletics, a new event on land, a 400-meter universal relay that connects touches with four people of different disabilities and genders.

Japan won the first bronze medal in the final on the night of the 3rd.

The key to attracting medals was the "touch work" that the players had refined.

In the final of the Universal Relay, the Japanese team finished in 4th place, but China in 2nd place won the bronze medal because the guide runner was disqualified.

The time of the final is 47.98.

It is a good record that exceeds the Japanese record before the tournament.



Why was this record and medal born?

The hint appeared in the post-race comment of Uran Sawada in the first race.



"It's a medal because it connects the touches firmly." The



touch work that players touch each other, not the baton, was a great weapon for Japan to fight the world.

In order to improve the touch work, the Japanese team has repeated training camps and made fine adjustments such as slightly shifting the position of the mark where the athlete starts running so that the touch can be connected reliably without slowing down.



And even in the Tokyo Paralympics and the qualifying race on the 4th, he suddenly broke the Japanese record with stable touch work.


However, according to coach Daiki Takano, after the race, the touch work was about 0.1 seconds slower than the best time in every section.



For example, Tomoki Suzuki, an anchor, looked back and lost time, and some small mistakes were seen.

For this reason, we made fine adjustments in each section, such as changing the position of Suzuki's starting mark to make it easier to accelerate, and faced the final race at night. It was a drastic decision before the final, but the players continued to run through the touches to the end. This was in contrast to China, where mistakes were made during touch work.



After the race, Suzuki said, "I was able to firmly connect the touch work that I had repeated many times."



Certainly, the United States and China, which set world records, were separated from the beginning of the race, and issues such as Kengo Oshima of the second run stating that "each person's power is overwhelmingly insufficient compared to other countries" are also highlighted. became.



Even so, it has been proved that the possibilities will expand if the touch work that Japan is good at is further extended. Coach Takano says, "The universal relay symbolizes the goodness of the Paralympics and will be an exciting event that goes beyond obstacles and other barriers."



The history of universal relays has just begun as to how to connect this bronze medal in the future.