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.
While the girls' race was a blowout by 2022 champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , the boys' race at Sunday's National High School Ekiden was a tense battle of turnover that saw all of the final top four teams take a stab at leading. 2023 3rd-placer Yachiyo Shoin H.S. handled the first 2 of the 7 stages in the 42.195 km race, with lead runner Rui Suzuki delivering a bold run on the 10.0 km First Stage that produced the fastest-ever time by a Japanese runner on the stage, 28:43, and put Yachiyo Shoin 29 seconds out front. Last year's Fifth Stage CR breaker Tetsu Suzuki ran Yachiyo Shoin down to put 2023 champ Saku Chosei H.S. into 1st on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, but Genta Sugano of last year's 8th-placer Sendai Ikuei H.S. had other plans and took the lead on the 8.0875 km Fourth Stage. Smiling and fist pumping to the crowd almost the entire way, Taketo Tsukada of last year's 6th-placer Omuta H.S. moved up from 3rd to 1st by 2 seconds over Saku Chosei on the 3.0 k...
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