Monday marked the fourth day of track and field competition at the Tokyo Paralympics. It was a relatively quiet day for the home team, with only three athletes competing in finals. In the men's T33 100 m final, Yuhei Yasuno was a distant 5th in 22.34, almost 3 seconds behind 4th place. Takuya Shiramasa and Akihiro Yamazaki went 6th and 7th in the men's F46 javelin throw final, Shiramasa throwing 58.35 m and Yamazaki 57.69 m.
With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao
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