Rain throughout the day made for cool but slick conditions on the seventh day of track and field competition at the Tokyo Paralympics. In the women's T63 long jump, national record holder Tomomi Tozawa had trouble hitting her takeoff, delivering four big umps over 5 m but narrowly fouling each time. Only safety jumps on her 3rd and 6th attempts got her on the board, her closing jump of 4.39 m (-0.3) enough for 4th overall but leaving her crying afterward at not having been able to deliver on her potential when it most counted. Kaede Maegawa was 5th with a jump of 4.23 m (+1.0) on her 4th attempt. All three medalists cleared 5 m, with Australian winner Vanessa Low dropping a world record 5.28 m (+0.2) on her final attempt for the win.
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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