Keiichi Kimura swims to gold for Japan in 50-meter freestyle at Paralympics

Swimmer Keiichi Kimura won gold in the men’s 50-meter freestyle event in the S11 class for athletes with vision impairment at the Paris Paralympics on Saturday.
The 33-year-old finished in 25.98 seconds to beat China’s Hua Dongdong and Brazilian Wendell Belarmino Pereira, who had matching times of 26.11 to share the silver medal.
Kimura, who lost his sight when he was 2-years old, was encouraged to take up the sport by his mother and began swimming at age 10.
He is competing in his fifth Paralympics and earned his ninth medal. He won his first Paralympic gold in the 100-meter butterfly at the Tokyo Games. He also earned silver in the 100-meter breaststroke at those Games. He was the flag bearer for Japan during the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympics in London.
Kimura will also compete in the men’s 100-meter butterfly in Paris.
In other action on Saturday, Kota Kubota earned silver in the men’s 100-meter backstroke in the S8 class for swimmers with physical impairments.
In the men’s individual boccia, Hidetaka Sugimura, who won gold in the event at the Tokyo Games, lost in the quarterfinals in the BC2 class for athletes whose movement is impacted from a low to moderate level.
In wheelchair badminton, the Japanese pair of Sarina Satomi and Yuma Yamazaki advanced to the women’s doubles final. Daiki Kajiwara reached the men’s singles semifinals, and Yamazaki reached the last four in the women’s singles event.
Japan’s wheelchair rugby team swept the group stage to advance to the semifinals. On Saturday, Japan beat Canada 50-46 in its third and final match in Group A.