A lightweight boxer, a farmer’s son in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan, will participate in a boxing tournament at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics beginning on August 5.
He is Daisuke Narimatsu, 26, born in a rice producer’s family living at Minami-ku, Kumamoto City. He graduated from Kumamoto Prefectural Kumamoto Agricultural High School and entered Tokyo University of Agriculture .
Daisuke Narimatsu continues training for the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics at the JSDF Physical Training School. (Nerima-ku, Tokyo)
Narimatsu began his boxing career at the Kumamoto Agricultural High School. Since he graduated from the University, he has been belonging to the Physical Training School of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) at Nerima-ku, Tokyo, where he is continuously training for the Rio Olympics as an executive member of JSDF.
When the earthquake first struck the Kumamoto region on April 14, he had been back to his home town to make a report of his participation in the Olympics to his former teacher and other persons concerned. He also experienced the main shock of the quake which severely hit the region on April 16, registering an intensity of 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale.
The Olympic athlete Narimatsu saw the devastated home town with his own eyes. He is now eager to get a gold medal at the Olympic tournament saying “A lot of farmers in my Kumamoto prefecture have heavily suffered from the earthquakes. I wish to come back to them with a gold medal.”