On the 1st, a public viewing (PV) was held at the Civic Hall in Tsukumi City, Oita Prefecture, in order to support Ippei Watanabe (27) (Toyota Motor Corporation), who competed in the final of the men’s 200-meter breaststroke at the Paris Olympics. Despite the early hour, more than 160 citizens and others participated. They cheered hard, holding towels and stick balloons with Watanabe’s name on them.

When Watanabe appeared at the race venue around 5:30 a.m., the participants rang out balloons and called out “Ippei.” Watanabe finished in 6th place with a time of 2 minutes 8.83 seconds. As he did not win a medal, some people cried out “Ahh” immediately after the race ended, but soon applause broke out in appreciation.

Tomohiro Shimoshiro (54), who coached Watanabe at the prefectural Saiki Kakujo High School and is currently the head coach of the swimming team at the prefectural Tsukumi High School, praised Watanabe’s efforts, saying, “It’s wonderful that he made it to the finals after failing to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics,” but also expressed hopes for further progress, saying, “I wanted him to run an aggressive race and get a time in the six-second range. I hope he sets his next goal and works hard.”[Kamiyama Megumi]