People :
A silver and bronze medal in short sprints at an international competition held by the FESPIC Federation (Far East and South Pacific Games Federation for the disabled) !
Mr. Tomoki Tagawa

Mr. Tagawa Tomoki Born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1986. Graduated from Kibogaoka High School in Kanagawa Prefecture and is currently in the third year of the School of Science and Engineering. Participated in the IPC Track and Field World Championships in September 2006, and won a silver medal for the 100m at the FESPIC Championships in November, and a bronze medal for the 200m. Record holder in the T46 Class. His hobbies are reading and watching movies.

He brought two medals to show us, laughingly pointing out that “I did say I'd bring a gold medal home... “. Mr. Tagawa participated in the FESPIC Games, the so-called “Asian Paralympics,” which were held in Kuala Lumpur late last year.. It was his first time to participate in championships on a grand scale, but Mr. Tagawa managed to win a silver medal in the 100m short sprints, and a bronze medal in the 200m. Before that, in June 2006, Mr. Tagawa established the Japanese national record in the T46 class. Even after such admirable feats, he maintains his modesty. “A record of 11 seconds for the 100m is not much compared to an able-bodied athlete,” he said with a shy smile.

Mr. Tagawa belonged to the Track and Field Club since he was in junior high school. Although he has had a disability called “right arm function disability” since birth, he was trained with his friends and participated in able-bodied championships. He did field events such as throwing, but had the second best records in short sprints. “In those days, track and field was not everything to me, but just part of my high school life”.

After entering university, getting to know the existence of “sports for the disabled”, he started participating. Mr. Tagawa has become more and more experienced with more and more opportunities to participate in not only national but also international championships. On the other hand, however, he suffered from losses against Japanese athletes with acquired disabilities. “It was my first time to feel frustrated, and I decided to start doing it seriously.” After this, Mr. Tagawa joined a team and once again commenced training with able-bodied athletes. These people have just got together to run “faster and faster”. No distinction between the disabled and the able-bodied existed. “Everyone else runs 100m in 10 seconds. It was hard at first, but I persuaded myself that it is for my own good. I forced myself, believing that training does not lie.”

“I want to run even faster and win the gold medal at the Beijing Paralympics!” Mr. Tagawa's forward-looking running should give us all hope for the future.