Daichi Oguri (Sanshin Kagaku Kogyo / Thigh Prosthesis LL1 class), one of the leading snowboarders in Japan, did not reach the podium he was aiming for for the second Paralympic Games. 5th in his favorite snowboard cross and 7th in Banked Slalom.
“I’m disappointed. I want to improve my skills for the next four years.”
In his usual calm tone, he oozes his passion and turned his gaze sharply forward.
Daichi Oguri facing Beijing Para, changing to a goofy stance with the prosthesis in front
Beijing Paralympic snowboarding competition. The snowboard cross in the first round had a longer and more complicated course layout than expected, and although high temperatures and yellow sand peculiar to China affected the snow quality, in official practice and training, we tried and adjusted various patterns of wax and artificial leg settings and qualifying. Break through. We advanced to the final round where multiple people race at the same time, and advanced to the semi-finals. Although he missed the final in the top four, he beat Noah Elliott (USA), a bronze medalist at the Pyeongchang Games, in the small final and finished first. He moved up two places from 7th place in the Pyeongchang Games.
On the other hand, the Banked Slalom, which slides on the gate course with a corner called a bank, is an event that competes in the faster of the two times. The originally scheduled qualifying was gone and only the final was held. In addition, the competition schedule was moved forward by one day due to the forecast of temperature rise, and the actual performance was greeted as practice opportunities were cut.
Oguri said the first time, “I felt too much in front of me to attack.” There was a scene where the line was taken differently from her expectation, the heel side turn accuracy was not good, and the balance was lost on the toe side turn at the next bank. The second time, I corrected it exactly and developed an aggressive slide like Oguri. There was a mistake in the bank on the way that the board slipped and stalled, but from the first time, the time was shortened by more than 1 second and the goal was reached.
1 second 13 difference from the 6th place player. “There is a considerable time difference. It’s disappointing. But I was able to slide better than in Pyeongchang. I think I was able to show my current ability,” he recalled.
