The final of the Japanese championship of Boccia, a ball game of parasports, was held in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, and Takayuki Hirose, who won the bronze medal in the Tokyo Paralympic Games, defeated Hidetaka Sugimura, the individual gold medal, to win the championship in a row.
Boccia is a parasport designed for people with impaired motor function such as cerebral palsy, in which six red and six blue balls are thrown at each other to compete for how close they can be to a white target ball.
The Japan Championship, which was held in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture for the first time in two years due to the influence of the new coronavirus, was held in four classes on the 9th, and top players in Japan such as the representative of the Tokyo Paralympics competed for the best in Japan. ..
In classes such as cerebral palsy, Hirose, who won the bronze medal in the Tokyo Paralympic Games, and Sugimura, who was a member of the same group as Hirose and won the first gold medal in Japan, met.
Hirose, who won the previous tournament, steadily accumulated points with outstanding control of "almost no mistakes", while Sugimura made mistakes at the chance to take additional points in the second end, and the accuracy of the characteristic is high. I couldn't show the pitch.
As a result, Hirose defeated Sugimura 5 to 1 and won the tournament for the second time in a row.
In the class with severe disabilities such as cerebral palsy, Hiroki Nitahara defeated Takumi Nakamura, a bronze medal in the Tokyo Paralympic Games, 3-2, and in the class with the most severe disabilities, Masayuki Arita was in Tokyo. In the Paralympic pair, I won the silver medal Keisuke Kawamoto 5-2.
In the last class of disabilities other than cerebral palsy, Shunsuke Uchida defeated Shun Esaki, the representative of the Tokyo Paralympics, to win the championship 6-0.
Hirose, who won the championship in a row, "I was happy with the live applause of the audience."
Takayuki Hirose, who won the championship in a row, said, "I wasn't able to leave a result in the Paralympics, but I'm glad I was able to make corrections gradually and do it with almost no mistakes in the final. Recently, Hidetaka Sugimura and 1st and 2nd. I'm glad that I've been competing for the position and I've been able to win the championship in a row. "
Regarding the points of play, he said, "I feel that I was able to put some of my own balls in front of Sugimura. Also, I was doing the hits that hit other balls with strength and weakness." I did.
On top of that, "I couldn't hear the fans' live cheers at the Tokyo Paralympics, but this time it was held with the audience, and the live applause was good during the competition. I want to do my best. "
Runner-up Sugimura "Everything is back"
Hidetaka Sugimura, who was the runner-up, said, "I tried to play my own game, not my opponent, but there were many parts where I couldn't play in my own way, so I think everything is coming back." It was smeared.
He also recalled that he couldn't get the additional points at the chance of the second end, "I went for the additional points, but that is the symbol of this tournament."