THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
September 5, 2021 at 14:55 JST
Misato Michishita clinched the gold medal in the women’s marathon for the visually impaired with a time of 3 hours and 50 seconds on Sept. 5, the last day of the Tokyo Paralympics.
Aside from Michishita, nine other athletes competed in the 42.195-kilometer event.
She and Russian runner Elena Pautova led from around the 20-km mark, but Michishita spurted ahead to become the solo leader past the 30-km point, and expanded her lead for the rest of the race.
Michishita, 44, holds the world record of 2 hours, 54 minutes and 13 seconds, which she set in December, her second time to renew her own world record.
A native of Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Michishita lost her vision in her right eye due to an intractable disease when she was in junior high school.
Her vision in her left eye later deteriorated to the point she could only sense light by the time she was around 25 years old.
She began training in track and field after she enrolled in a school for the visually impaired at the age of 26. She started running marathons in 2008 when she was 31.
Michishita won a silver medal in the women’s marathon for the visually impaired during the Rio Paralympic Games in 2016, the first Paralympics to introduce the event, with a time of 3 hours, 6 minutes and 52 seconds.
“There were times when I could not bring myself to be hopeful in life, but I was able to find supportive friends after telling people around me what I yearned to do and we overcame the hardships together,” she said in a recent interview. “I was not confident at first, but I have accomplished something I desperately wanted. So I believe people everywhere no matter what problems they face can also achieve their dreams.”
The race was one of five marathons for both men and women held in the capital on the morning of the last day of the Paralympic Games, including marathons for Paralympians in wheelchairs.
The athletes started from the National Stadium to finish there by way of covering Tokyo’s landmarks, such as the Asakusa district and the Imperial Palace.
Tokyo Paralympic organizers called on Tokyoites to root for runners from home as a precaution against the novel coronavirus.
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Misato Michishita crosses the finish line to capture a gold medal in the women’s marathon for visually impaired runners at the National Stadium in Tokyo on Sept. 5. (Takaharu Yagi)
