Japan Men’s Goalball Team Wins 1st Gold Medal at Paris Paralympics; Women’s Wheelchair Tennis Pair Earns Gold

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:36 JST, September 6, 2024

PARIS — Japan won their first gold medal in the men’s goalball event at the Paris Paralympics on Thursday, defeating Ukraine 4-3 in a match that went into overtime.

While the Japan women’s team has won three medals in the sport, including gold at the 2012 London Paralympics, it is the first time for the men’s team to claim a medal.

Also on Thursday, Yui Kamiji, 30, and Manami Tanaka, 28, became the first Japanese pair to win gold in the women’s wheelchair tennis doubles event, defeating the Dutch duo.

In the men’s wheelchair tennis singles event, Tokito Oda, 18, beat Gustavo Fernandez of Argentina in the semifinals to advance to the final on Saturday.

Natsuki Wada, 21, became the first Japanese athlete to earn gold in the women’s para table tennis singles event in the WS11 classification for athletes with intellectual impairments, defeating Tokyo Paralympic gold medalist Elena Prokofeva from Russia, who competed as a neutral athlete. Kanami Furukawa won bronze in the same event.

In para athletics, Ryota Fukunaga, 25, nabbed the silver medal in the men’s 400 meters event in the T13 vision impairment classification with a time of 48.07 seconds.

In para judo, Shizuka Hangai claimed the silver medal in the women’s 48-kilogram division in the complete blindness classification, losing to Nataliya Nikolaychyk of Ukraine. Hangai’s silver medal is Japan’s first in the event.

In boccia, the Japan team, consisting of Hiromi Endo, Takayuki Hirose and Hidetaka Sugimura, defeated South Korea 8-3 to earn the bronze medal in the BC1/BC2 mixed team match for athletes who may have assistance and those who compete independently.

The team recovered from their 0-9 defeat to Indonesia in Wednesday’s semifinals to secure their third consecutive Paralympic medal in the event.