Tokyo Paralympics: Para athletics day 6 preview

Day six will kick off the second half of the Para athletics competition programme at Tokyo 2020. There will be 14 finals on 1 September, five in the morning and nine in the evening session.

The action at the National Olympic Stadium will start at 9:30 am (Tokyo time) with men’s javelin F34.

Colombia’s Mauricio Valencia is the main favourite to gold as the reigning Paralympic champion and world record holder. The 33-year-old from Cali is the back-to-back world champion from London 2017 and Dubai 2019.

Valencia set the second-best mark of the year at the Dubai World Para Athletics Grand Prix in February, while his compatriot Diego Meneses Medina threw the javelin even further at the Tunis GP. Iran’s Saeid Afrooz is third in the rankings this year.

Next up will be the women’s discus F41 where Tunisia’s Raoua Tlili already tasted Paralympic success. She won the gold medal at Rio 2016 and added three World Championships titles to her name.

She set the second-best result in 2021 at the Jesolo Grand Prix in April. Moroccan thrower Youssra Karim set the benchmark this year at the Tunis Grand Prix. She will be Tlili’s main rival in Tokyo as the world record holder and silver medallist from the Dubai 2019 Worlds.

Ireland’s Niamh Mc Carthy will compete in Tokyo as the third-best in 2021. She has defended her European Championships gold medal in Poland in June, while she also has three World Championships medals and a second place from Rio 2016 Paralympics to her collection.

Fathia Amaimia will round up the fierce competition in the women’s discus F41. Tunisia’s athlete won bronze at the Rio 2016 Paralympics and has two World Championships silver medals on her list of accolades.

Another event full of gold medal will come right after the discus F41. It is the men’s long jump T38 that has been dominated by Chinese athletes in recent years.

Huanghao Zhong is the silver medallist from Rio 2016, London 2017 Worlds, and the Jakarta 2018 Asian Para Games. His compatriot Dening Zhu is the reigning world champion from Dubai 2019.

RPC’s Khetag Khinchagov was the silver medallist in Dubai but won gold at the European Championships in Bydgoszcz in June. He set the second-best result of the year in the Euros. Only Colombia’s Jose Lemos Rivas jumped longer than Khinchagov in 2021 with a mark set at the Tunis Grand Prix.

The last field event of the morning session will be the men’s shot put F46. USA’s Josh Cinnamo will be competing as the reigning world champion from Dubai 2019 and the current world record holder.

London 2017 world champion Enlong Wei from China will also be competing in Tokyo. Abrahan Ortega Abello from Venezuela will come to the Paralympic Games as the ranking leader in the event with a best performance at a competition in Colombia in March.

Great Britain’s Greg Stewart is the third-best in the event this year. He is also the Dubai 2019 Worlds silver medallist. RPC’s Nikita Prokhorov was third in Dubai and took gold at this year’s European Championships in Bydgoszcz.

The last final of the morning session will be the men’s 400m T37. South Africa’s Charl Du Toit is the defending Paralympic champion, as well as the world champion from London in 2017. He is the fastest man in the event this year with the world record holder Andrei Vdovin behind him.

RPC’s Vdonin is the reigning world and European champion from Dubai 2019 and Bydgoszcz 2021. Poland’s Michal Kotkowski was behind Vdovin in Bydgoszcz in June, while he won the European title in Berlin three years ago.

Afternoon session

The afternoon programme at the National Olympic Stadium in Tokyo will start with two field events. First up will be the women’s shot put F32 where RPC’s Evgeniia Galaktionova is the favourite to take the gold medal. She is the best performer this year with a result set at Bydgoszcz 2021 Euros that gave her the gold medal. Galaktionova won a silver medal at the Dubai 2019 Worlds where her biggest rival Anastasiia Moskalenko took first place.

Ukraine’s Moskalenko had to settle for the silver medal at this year’s European Championships where she also set the second-best time in 2021.

Noura Alktebi from the United Arab Emirates could disrupt the plans for Galaktionova and Moskalenko as the silver medallist from the previous Paralympics in Rio.

Another women’s shot put event will come up on day six in the T36 class. China’s Qing Wu is a three-time Paralympic medallist and five-time World Championships medallist - two of them gold from Doha 2015 and London 2017.

Germany's Juliane Mogge is the silver medallist from London 2017, while the RPC’s Galina Lipatnikova won silver two years later in Dubai.

The best mark so far this year belongs to Colombia’s Martha Hernandez Florian at the Nottwil Grand Prix in May in Switzerland.

Following up on the programme will be three track finals with the women’s 100m T36 coming first. China’s Shi Yiting is the clear favourite as the reigning back-to-back world champion and the world record holder.

Argentina’s Yanina Martinez is the defending Paralympic champion and a three-time World Championships silver medallist. Both Yiting and Martinez will come to Tokyo without notable results in 2021.

Danielle Aitchison from New Zealand is the fastest woman in the event this year, while Brazil’s Samira Da Silva Brito holds second place. Her compatriot Tascitha Oliveira is another one worth highlighting as the bronze medallist from Dubai 2019 Worlds.

Germany’s Claudia Nicoleitzik is the silver medallist from Beijing 2008 and Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, while she also has three World and European Championships medals to her name.

Poker of aces chasing greatness

Next up will be the men’s 100m T53 with Canada’s Brent Lakatos leading the pack. He is the world record holder, reigning Paralympic champion and four-time world champion. On top of that, Lakatos is the fastest wheelchair racer in the event in 2021.

Abdulrahmen Alqurashi from Saudi Arabia is the second-fastest  year. His biggest achievement is the silver medal from the Dubai 2019 Worlds.

France’s Pierre Fairbank follows up in the rankings as the third-fastest in 2021. He is the bronze medallist from the Doha 2015 Worlds and a three-time European champion, most recently in Bydgoszcz in June.

Last but not the least of notable, Thailand’s Pongsakorn Paeyo is the Rio 2016 silver medallist, a two-time World Championships bronze medallist and the Jakarta 2018 Asian Para Games champion.

Finland’s Leo-Pekka Tahti is a synonym of the men’s 100m T54. The 38-year-old from Pori is the six-time European champion, five-time world champion, and four-time Paralympic gold medallist with his successful run dating back to the Athens 2004 Paralympics.

China’s Yang Liu will try to dethrone Tahti. The Chinese defeated the Finnish legend for gold at the Doha 2015 Worlds but had to settle for silver on four occasions at the Paralympics and World Championships.

Kenny van Weeghel from the Netherlands is another one to watch as a five-time World Championships medallist and a two-time Paralympics medallist.

The men’s club throw F51 is traditionally one of the longest events of the whole Para athletics competition. Serbia’s Zeljko Dimitrijevic is the reigning Paralympic, world, and European champion, as well as the world record holder and the best performer in 2021.

Dimitrijevic set his season-best at the Euros in Bydgoszcz in June. Slovakia’s Marian Kureja and another Serbian Aleksandar Radisic also set their best results of the season in Poland. Kureja should be the biggest threat for Dimitrijevic in Tokyo as the silver medallist from the Rio 2016 Paralympics and this year's Euros.

Mexico’s Mario Ramos Hernandez won the silver medal at the Dubai 2019 Worlds, while India’s Amit Kumar did the same two years earlier in London. They will both be in action at Tokyo 2020.

There are three more finals on the schedule. One of them led by one of the biggest athletes in Para athletics history. Germany's Markus Rehm will be putting his own limits to test again and trying to break the men's long jump T64 world record. 

The 32-year-old from Goppingen is a two-time Paralympic champion in the long jump and set a new world record at the Euros in Bydgoszcz with 8.62m - a mark only achieved by 12 non-disabled athletes in history.

USA’s Trenten Merrill is second in the rankings this year while France's Dimitri Pavade is the Dubai 2019 World Championships silver medallist.

Women’s sprint closing day six

The last two competition at the National Olympic Stadium on day six will be 100m finals in the women's T53 and T54 classes.

First up is the women’s 100m T53 final. China's Hongzhuan Zhou and Fang Gao are likely to battle for gold. Zhou is the silver medallist from the last two editions of the Paralympics, while Gao has the Dubai 2019 World Championships title to her name.

Australia’s Angela Ballard is the three-time Paralympic bronze medallist and a two-time World Championships medallist. Great Britain’s Samantha Kinghorn also has a lot of experience in the event. She is the world champion from London in 2017 and a European champion from Swansea seven years ago.

Most importantly, Kinghorn set the fastest time of the year at the Nottwil Grand Prix in May. Switzerland’s Catherine Debrunner is the owner of the second-fastest time this year.

Finland’s Amanda Kotaja is the favourite to take her first Paralympic title in the women’s 100m T54. She is the reigning back-to-back world champion and a three-time European champion from 2014 to 2018.

Kotaja set the fastest time in 2021 at a competition in Finland in July. She is followed by the USA’s Hannah Dederick and Cheri Madsen in second and third place. Madsen has more international experience as the silver and bronze medallist from London 2017 and Dubai 2019 Worlds.

China’s Zhaoqian Zhou and Turkey’s Zubeyde Supurgeci will also be in contention for medals. Zhou is the silver medallist from the Dubai 2019 Worlds, while Supurgeci took the European title in Bydgoszcz two months ago.

Complete schedule and results from the Para athletics competition at Tokyo 2020 will be available on Paralympic.org.