Two Afghan Paralympians arrive in Tokyo

TOKYO -- Two Afghan athletes have arrived here to compete at the Tokyo Paralympic Games.

Organizers announced late Saturday night that taekwondoka Zakia Khudadadi and runner Hossain Rasouli arrived in the Japanese capital on August 28 from Paris where they have been training at the National Institute of Sport Expertise and Performance (INSEP), the French sports ministry high-performance training center.

"With global support from several individuals, organizations and governments, the pair were evacuated last weekend from Kabul to Paris, France," it was announced.

Two athletes returned two negative PCR tests for COVID-19 in the 96 hours and 72 hours before departure and were tested once again upon arrival at Haneda Airport.

Zakia will be Afghanistan's first female athlete to compete at the Paralympic Games since Athens 2004. She will attend the women's K44 -49kg competition in taekwondo on September 2. Hossain will line-up in the heats of the men's 400m T47 athletics event on September 3.

Upon arrival at the Paralympic Village on Saturday evening, the two athletes were welcomed by IPC President Andrew Parsons and Chairperson of the IPC Athletes' Council Chelsey Gotell.