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.
30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...

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