Afghan athlete Hossain Rasouli, long jumper, finally participated at the Tokyo Paralympics 2020. Rasouli and teammate Zakia Khudadadi arrived in Tokyo on Saturday after they were evacuated from Kabul. After arriving at the Games a week late, the two-person team has since then been isolated in the Paralympic Village for privacy and safety reasons.

Rasouli is primarily a sprinter but arrived too late for his event. So he tried the long jump in the T47 class, his only event at these Games.

He finished last in the 13-man competition with a jump of 4.46 meters. The winning jump was 7.46 meters by Cuban Robiel Yankiel Sol Cervantes.

International Paralympic Committee spokesperson Craig Spence said he spoke to Rasouli on Monday but declined to share information.

“He was super excited to be competing. He had done long jump previously, but it was his first long jump in a major competition. It was a very special occasion. That’s as much as I’ll say,” Associated Press quoted Spence as saying.

Khudadadi is set to become the first female Afghan athlete to compete in the Paralympics since 2004. She will challenge in the women’s 44-49-kilogram weight category in taekwondo on Thursday.

The Afghan athletes were received in Tokyo at the Paralympic Village on the weekend by IPC president Andrew Parsons.

Their arrival came less than two weeks after the IPC was informed the Afghan team could not travel to Tokyo, a move, Parsons said, “that broke the hearts of all involved in the Paralympic movement and left both athletes devastated.”

“That announcement kick-started a major global operation that led to their safe evacuation from Afghanistan, their recuperation by France, and now their safe arrival in Tokyo,” he added.

The Paralympics that started on August 25 will close on September 5. Tokyo is the first city to hold the Paralympic Games for the second time.

(With inputs from Associated Press)