The Kobe World Para Athletics Championships kicked off Friday, with Japan taking two bronze medals in the first three days of competition. Kenya Karasawa got things started with a bronze medal in the men's T11 5000 m on the opening day, and Uran Sawada followed that up with a T12 women's long jump bronze Sunday. Six days remain, with the results in Kobe weighing heavily in athletes' chances of being at the Paris Paralympics later this year. Two weeks after winning the 10000 m National Championships in a PB 27:17.46, Jun Kasai 's chances of making the Paris Olympics got a boost when he ran 27:34.14 for 5th at the Night of the 10,000 m PBs in the U.K. Saturday. Japanese men currently occupy 25th and 27th in the 27-deep Paris 10000 m quota, 2023 and 2024 Nationals runner-up Tomoki Ota in 25th with 1249 points and former NR holder Akira Aizawa in 27th with 1228. With this run Kasai's score comes in at 1232, enough to bump Aizawa down to 28th and out of the quota b
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