August 31, 2021
Sierra Leone athlete, Sorie Kargbo has gained automatic qualification to the T46 Long Jump finals at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
Kargbo booked his place in the finals without jumping after some of his fellow competitors were disqualified from competing in the event.
During the technical meeting held on Monday 30th, August 2021, Sorie Kargbo meets all the criteria set to compete in the T46 long jump classification, which qualified him and 7 other athletes in that category.
Despite other athletes in that particular classification failed to meet the criteria, the organizers decided to add five other athletes from the T47 category to join those who are T46 to compete in the finals.
The additional T47 athletes increase the total number of competitors that will face off in the finals to 13, and the event will commence at 9:30 am at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo.
The head of the Sierra Leone technical team, coach Hajaratu Kamara who was in the meeting confirmed that Sorie Kargbo is qualified to compete in the category and there was nothing to worried about as he has met the standards before they travel to Japan.
She said that it is clear that Kargbo has qualified straight to the finals, they are hoping for the better, even though there are other tough competitors in the same category from other countries that are more advanced in the disability sports with modern facilities.
“We are optimistic to finish among the best in the finals. Our role here is to represent Sierra Leone with good performances, anything after that will be an added advantage as we are still in the learning process of disabled sports”, Hajaratu, the Port Loko based coach affirmed.
After Sorie received news about the draw, he expressed excitement to have got the opportunity to qualify to the finals and he is looking forward to a remarkable performance on Tuesday morning, even though he will be competing with top athletes like Wang Hao from China and also Fawehinmi Tobi of the USA who they’ve tipped to win the event.
The World record for the event stands as 7.58 set by Assoumani Arnaud from France in Christchurch (NZL) on 22 January 2011 and the Paralympic record stands as 7.41 set by Townsend Roderick from the USA at Rio 2016 in Brazil.