The first of the two Afghan Paralympic athletes debuted this Tuesday, August 31, at the Tokyo Games in the long jump, three days after his surprise arrival from Paris, following his evacuation from Kabul.
Blocked by like tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan by the Taliban takeover, then exfiltrated but announced as absent from the Paralympic Games, Hossain Rasouli finally participated in the Afghan delegation’s first test in Tokyo on Tuesday.
The arrival of the Taliban told by the Afghan basketball player Nilofar Bayat, a refugee in Spain
Not having been able to arrive in time to participate in his favorite discipline, the 100 meters, the athlete, whose left hand was amputated after a mine explosion, participated in the long jump (category T47).
Entering the National Stadium, Hossain Rasouli greeted the delegation members scattered in the empty stands before pointing to the Afghan Paralympic Committee logo on his white jacket.
First long jump “in a major competition”
He placed 13th and last on the specially widened field, after three jumps at 4.37m, 4.21m and 4.46m.
The 100 meter specialist, Hossain Rasouli, had to participate in the long jump.
Exempt from a mixed zone, he did not speak to the media after the event won by Cuban Robiel Yankiel Sol Cervantes with a jump of 7.46 m. But the spokesman for the International Paralympic Committee, Craig Spence, assured that the athlete was “Super impatient” when he spoke to her the day before. “I had done the long jump before, but it was the first time I had participated in a major competition.”Spence said.
The American Roderick Townsend, second, appreciated the symbol: “We are so caught up in our personal lives, and I’m here complaining about a silver medal because someone has gone out of their way to travel the world in order to do what we all love. “
“It says a lot about the Paralympic Games, what they mean and what they represent.”he added.
The other Afghan representative, Zakia Khudadadi, is due to make his first appearance on Thursday in taekwondo, in the category under 49 kg (category K44).
The two athletes were received in Insep
The two athletes arrived in Japan Saturday after leaving Afghanistan a week earlier as part of a “Major global operation”. They spent this period in Paris, training at Insep, the center of excellence for French sport.
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In his absence during the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, the Afghan flag symbolically paraded, carried by a Japanese volunteer.
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