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.
The Dec. 1 Fukuoka International Marathon is the first of this winter season's big selection races for the home soil team for next year's Tokyo World Championships, and the domestic field is a great one. Kenya Sonota , 2:05:59 in Tokyo last year, and 2:06 men Yusuke Nishiyama , Yuya Yoshida , Kazuya Nishiyama and Daisuke Doi make up the main contenders to get a spot, with internationals Lemeck Too , Jie He , Bethwel Yegon , Vincent Raimoi , last year's winner Michael Githae , and Shaohui Yang perfectly positioned to add momentum to the shot at the 2:06:30 Worlds standard that they'll all be taking. 8 other Japanese men in the 2:07 to 2:09 range make it one of the most competitive Fukuoka editions in a long, long time. Last year Githae outkicked Yang by 1 second to win 2:07:08 to 2:07:09, Yang with a Chinese NR that was broken a few months later by He in Wuxi. Chinese men's marathoning has momentum right now too, and it wouldn't be surprising to see either He
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