On Sunday Feb 22, Ito-san attended 20th Wheelchair Ekiden Championship in Kyoto as a member of Mie Pref. Team.

Ekiden is a long distance relay race originalted in Japan.

Every prefectures in Japan organized a team. But this is the first time that Mie Prefecture were able to organize a team.

Mie Prefecture Team Members
From Left: Ito-san, Teruyo Tanaka, Junichiro Inaba,
Katsuhiko Tanaka, and Masaru Kobayashi

Opening Ceremony

Opening Ceremony

Ito-san Warming up

1st Runner: Tomoya Ito.

2nd Runner: Katsuhiko Tanaka

3rd Runner: Junichiro Inaba

4th Runner: Masaru Kobayashi

5th Runner: Teruyo Tanaka

The result was 19th place out of 30 teams.

Their achievement may be small, yet it was an important step for wheelchair athletics in our region.