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.
Heavy-duty favorite Sheila Chepkirui took the win at Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon , pulling away after 30 km to cruise in for 1st in 2:20:40. Erratic pacing early saw the first and second groups only seconds apart for much of the first half of the race, the top group slower than planned and the 2nd group a bit ahead of schedule. At halfway in 1:10:37 the front group included Chepkirui, #2-ranked Ruti Aga and last year's runner-up Eunice Chumba , and Japanese contingent Sayaka Sato , Rika Kaseda , Natsuki Omori and Mao Uesugi . Omori was the first to drop, then Uesugi, then Aga, who ultimately dropped out before 30 km. When the pacers stopped at 30 km Chepkirui made a move that dropped Kaseda and strung out Chumba and Sato behind her, but all four came back together once before another surge put Kaseda away for good. As Chepkirui inched away Sato and Chumba passed each other repeatedly, and Chumba could only watch as the top Japanese runner got away from her again thi...
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