Nagoya, Oct. 22 (Jiji Press)–Japanese wheelchair tennis player Yui Kamiji failed to win a third straight Asian Para Games singles gold medal on Thursday but secured silver, at the ongoing competition being held mainly in the central Japan prefecture of Aichi. In the women’s singles final at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games, Kamiji, 32, lost 6-1, 7-6 to China’s Li Xiaohui, the wheelchair singles winner at this year’s Australian Open. Kamiji, who became the first Japanese woman to achieve a career Golden Slam this year, was apparently unable to perform well throughout the Asian Para Games. “I regret my lack of coordination,” she said while noting that the defeat “will be a good opportunity to think about my skills.” Also in wheelchair tennis, Japan’s Tokito Oda, 20, and Daisuke Arai, 38, clinched gold in the men’s doubles event. Oda advanced to Friday’s singles final. Oda said that the doubles gold put him “in a positive frame of mind,” adding, “I want to fully enjoy and play tennis like dancing (in the final match).” Many other Japanese athletes also thrived in Thursday’s events at the Asian Para Games. In track-and-field events, Tomoki Sato, 37, won the men’s 400-meter sprint title in the wheelchair T51/52 class, netting his second gold in the tournament after the 100-meter medal that he earned Wednesday. Japanese athletes swept the podium in the T51/52 400-meter race, with Tomoya Ito, 63, finishing second and Tatsuya Ito, 40, third. Daiki Ishiyama. 26, gained gold in the men’s 400-meter race and bronze in long jump, both in the T12 class for visually impaired athletes. In swimming, Kotaro Ogiwara, 24, and Keiichi Kimura, 36, won gold in the men’s S8 class 100-meter backstroke and S11 class 50-meter freestyle, respectively. In table tennis, Takashi Asano, 25, and Natsuki Wada, 23, netted gold for the mixed doubles event for athletes with intellectual disabilities. The Japanese women’s wheelchair basketball team took silver. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
