Wheelchair racing is a team sport for me –athlete Tsubasa Kina

Tsubasa Kina, a Japanese up-and-coming wheelchair athlete, participated in the GIO Oz Day 10K, an annual wheelchair road race held on Australia Day in the Rocks, Sydney.

Tsubasa and her athletic wheelchair Source: SBS

Tsubasa warming up before the Oz Day 10k Source: SBS

Tsubasa is from Okinawa prefecture and use to play basketball when she was a teenager.  Tsubasa was so good that she was chosen to represent the prefecture.  However, due to an accident that happened during her independent training when she was a first-year undergraduate, she started requiring a wheelchair.

Tsubasa started training for a wheelchair marathon in 2013 after her graduation.  It did not take long for Tsubasa to win first place in the Oita International Wheelchair Marathon held in Japan in 2016.

In the GIO Oz Day 10K this year, unfortunately Tsubasa could not finish the race because she had a flat tire.

Tsubasa tells us how she started wheelchair athletics and what she would like to achieve this year.

'I like Australian wine too'. Tsubasa showing off her purchase of a bottle of sparking red Source: SBS