TOKYO, Aug 31, 2021 (BSS/AFP) - After a dramatic evacuation from Taliban-

held Kabul and a secret operation to fly him to Tokyo, Afghan Paralympian
Hossain Rasouli beat the odds on Tuesday to compete in the long jump.

  It was not the event he had been expecting to contest, after qualifying for
the 100m T47, but then just about everything in his world was turned upside
down with the insurgents' capture of his homeland.

  After the militant group overran the capital, he and fellow Afghan
Paralympian Zakia Khudadadi found themselves trapped, with no way to get to
Tokyo.

  At first, it seemed their Paralympic dream was over. A Tokyo 2020 volunteer
symbolically carried the Afghan flag during the Games opening ceremony, with
no athletes on the ground to take part.

  Over the weekend though, officials revealed the Afghan pair had been
successfully flown out of the country.

  After a stop in Dubai, they were taken to Paris and spent a week at the
French sports ministry's high-performance training centre before flying to
Tokyo, where they arrived on Saturday evening.

  The pair are being kept away from the media, with the International
Paralympic Committee saying the athletes needed space to focus on their
sport.

  But IPC spokesman Craig Spence said Tuesday that Rasouli was "super excited
to be competing today".

  The Afghan emerged from the athletes' entrance on Tuesday with a wave to
team officials dotted around the mostly empty Olympic Stadium.

  Rasouli, whose left hand was amputated as the result of a mine explosion,
then proudly pointed towards the Afghanistan Paralympic Committee logo on his
vest.

  The 26-year-old finished last, reflecting his comparative inexperience in
the discipline -- it was his first time taking part in long jump in a major
competition.

  Still, Spence said, "it was great to see him" on what was "a very special
occasion".

  Khudadadi will compete in taekwondo on Thursday.

  - Golden Storey -

  Elsewhere, there was joy for British cycling great Sarah Storey, who won
the C5 road time trial at Fuji International Speedway to equal swimmer Mike
Kenny's all-time British Paralympic Games record of 16 gold medals.

  "I've been preparing for this race for such a long time. The time trial is
probably one of my favourite events," she said afterwards.

  "It's the 'race of truth'. It's you against the clock, and trying to pick
off your competitors as you see them."

  Storey, who was born without a functioning left arm, has broken 76 world
records and shows no sign of slowing down.

  The 43-year-old competes next in Thursday's road race, where she will have
the chance to break Kenny's record, though she said she was not making any
assumptions.

  "Road races are so unpredictable," Storey said.

  "So Thursday morning I'll come out and try to have some fun and see which
way the cookie crumbles."

  On a day with 61 golds up for grabs across five sports, there was
heartbreak for "armless archer" Matt Stutzman, the American who is one of the
world's most recognisable Paralympians.

  He missed out on a medal in the men's compound open class on Tuesday when
he fell in the last 16, beaten 143-137 by Slovakia's Marcel Pavlik.

  The 2015 world champion was well below his best at the Yumenoshima Park
Archery Field and failed to make it to the quarter-final for the second
successive Paralympics, having fallen at the same stage in Rio.

  The medals will be decided later Tuesday.