Great Effort: Participating in the All-Japan Wheelchair Fencing Championship

The Olympics have begun, haven't they?

Koki Kano won the gold in men's epee fencing! 🌟
Congratulations.

To all the athletes who have worked hard for four years with this as their goal,
I think just being able to stand on this stage is a wonderful achievement.

Well then, we had some heated matches here as well.

The 2nd All-Japan Wheelchair Fencing Championship

Two athletes from our club participated.

It was held on July 28th at the Akabane Gymnasium in Tokyo.
A total of 18 wheelchair fencers gathered from all over the country.

The preliminaries were pool matches of four people.

After a solid warm-up with a coach (not me), they headed into the matches.

They were moving well from the very first match.
The matches proceeded smoothly, and both advanced to the tournament in second place with two wins and one loss.
At this point, they were in the top 16.
Each of them won their tournament matches and advanced to the quarterfinals.

Their opponent in the quarterfinals was a member of the Japanese national team for the Paris Paralympics.
They attacked boldly, but unfortunately, they were defeated.
Both of them significantly improved their rankings from last year.
Congratulations.

The two of them have powered up in terms of technique, stamina, and mentality.

For the past year leading up to this tournament, they have been diligently practicing, discussing techniques, and trying various things.
This is the result of their hard work.

This is the largest wheelchair fencing tournament in Japan.
Because there are few competitors and specialized equipment is needed to fix the wheelchairs in place for matches, there are very few tournaments.

It would be nice if there were a few more tournaments to help maintain motivation and gain more match experience, but that is quite difficult.

It was also an opportunity to exchange information and interact with athletes from across the country who are practicing in similar situations.

I think it's hard to experience this in other sports, but the chance to compete against Olympians is rare, so that might be one of the benefits of having a small number of competitors.

Thanks to the two of them, I am able to enjoy wheelchair fencing.

Bonus

Through the experience of a wheelchair user taking a flight, I realized the importance of the freedom to move on one's own.

When boarding a plane, you cannot board in your own wheelchair.
Therefore, you must transfer to an onboard wheelchair.
Onboard wheelchairs cannot be self-propelled and require assistance.

When we used a plane to participate in last year's tournament, we were instructed to transfer to an onboard wheelchair immediately after check-in and have the personal wheelchair checked as luggage.
Naturally, someone was needed to push the wheelchair.

This year, we were able to choose where to make the transfer.
Because of that, they were able to stay in their own wheelchair until just before boarding the plane.

This changes the degree of freedom for a wheelchair user.

You might think it's just about having someone push the wheelchair, but for someone who usually moves on their own, having to be pushed causes a fair amount of hesitation and a feeling of being constrained.
I imagine they also feel self-conscious about things like going to the restroom.

It made me realize once again that being able to move by one's own will is very important.

It was 36 degrees in Tokyo. When I returned home, it was 21 degrees.
A temperature difference of 15 degrees.
It's cold.
I'm surprised that it can be so different even within the same country of Japan.

#SportsSpectatorReport