Day 11: Men’s F20 Long Jump finishes Games campaign for athletes with Intellectual Impairment.

By Mousumi Mazumdar

After 11 days of non-stop actions, the events for athletes with an Intellectual Impairment at Tokyo 2020 concluded with the F20 Men’s Long-Jump today.

The rain was stronger than the preceding days at Tokyo Olympic Stadium, making it difficult for the athletes to perform. However, World Champions never give up, which was proved by the Malaysian jumper Abdul Latif Romly.

The Second time Paralympian successfully defended his World and Paralympic title in the long jump pit despite suffering from an injury during the competition. He recorded his season-best with 7.45m and was very emotional during the Medal Ceremony.

“This medal is for my family who I haven’t met in the past 9 months,” Abdul said.

“I slipped on the board while taking the jump and injured my groin muscles and couldn’t finish my competition. I am sad that I couldn’t break my World Record,” he said. The medical team is still monitoring the athlete’s injury and (at the time of this article) had not decided yet whether to admit the athlete to the hospital.

Athanasios Prodromou from Greece made a terrific debut at the games and seized his first medal, a Silver by covering a distance of 7.17m. It was also his Personal Best. Meanwhile, participating in his second Paralympic Games, Australian Nicholas Hum won his first medal tonight also.

Nicholas stated, “It’s an incredible feeling!”

“I have been working on a lot of aspects of my jump – mental, technical, lifting, diet, etc. Fortunately, Melbourne was not under complete lockdown so I could train,” he said.

Interestingly, the athlete used to play Basketball and was a part of the Australian Basketball team at the Global Games 2011 in Italy. He reflected upon how it was a wrong sport for him.

“I played basketball for a while, played athletics, and went back to basketball and realized it was a dumb decision and came back to Athletics,” said Nicholas.

His father was also a former state-level champion and serves as an inspiration to the athlete. The athlete recently became a dad and had a little baby girl on 30th August, whom he cannot wait to see. Hum also confirmed that he will stick to Athletics (Long-jump) at the upcoming Virtus Global Games 2023 in Vichy, France.

Virtus congratulates all the athletes for showcasing their spectacular performances. You inspire us all and we have been cheering you on from every corner of the world!

The Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games will be officially closed tomorrow at 8:00 pm Japan time.

Photo credit: Reuters