Asian Para Games: Boccia bronze stirs emotions for Takahashi at injury site

From Kyodo

October 21 2026

NAGOYA – Japan’s Kazuki Takahashi became emotional after winning bronze in the men’s individual BC3 boccia event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games on Wednesday, as the medal came at the venue where he suffered a life-changing injury about 30 years ago.

Takahashi, a Paralympic silver medalist, beat South Korea’s Jeong Ho Wong 5-1 in the bronze medal match at Nagoya City General Gymnasium.

Boccia is a precision ball sport for athletes with disabilities in which players compete to place their balls as close as possible to a target ball.

Athletes who are unable to throw the balls due to their physical impairments can also play by using a ramp, a sloped device, and communicating their intentions to the ramp operator. BC3 is a class for athletes who use ramps.

“I was aiming for the gold medal, but after losing in the semifinals I quickly switched my focus to securing at least bronze,” Takahashi said. “I’m disappointed, but I’m glad I was able to finish with a medal.”

The home Asian Para Games hold special significance for the 46-year-old native of Saitama Prefecture, a former judoka who began the martial art at age 5 and won a Kanto regional title in his final year of junior high school.

It was at the same sports complex hosting the boccia competition that, as a high school sophomore, he suffered a cervical spinal cord injury during a judo match, resulting in paralysis of most of his body below the collarbone and the need to use a power wheelchair.

“I feel a strange sense of connection (to win a medal in Nagoya), and it is certainly very meaningful for me,” Takahashi said.

The boccia player said he had never imagined after suffering the devastating judo injury that he would one day compete at the venue again with the support of so many fans.

“If there are people in the same situation I was in 30 years ago, I hope I can show them that their future can be shaped by how they choose to live their lives,” Takahashi said.

After Tokyo won the bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2013, Takahashi took up boccia with the goal of competing at the Paralympics.

He made his Paralympic debut at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016 before winning a silver medal in the pairs event at the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021.