Sep 04, 2021

Wallace gets 1st medal; Mayhugh sets world record

Posted Sep 04, 2021 3:17 PM

TOKYO – In his third Paralympic appearance at the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020, Jarryd Wallace (Athens, Ga.) found the podium for his first Paralympic medal taking bronze in the men’s 200-meter T64.

The medal was an emotional one for Wallace, who said the combination of running with – and beating – the fastest class of athletes in Paralympic history and the thought of all his family had sacrificed for him to be there, was overwhelming.

Wallace competed in London 2012 and Rio 2016 but never finished higher than fifth before tonight’s final. He has previously won the 200m at world championships in 2017 and 2013, and secured his first Paralympic podium with a season-best time of 22.09 with his nearly two-year-old son watching at home.

Nick Mayhugh (Manassas, Va.) finished the Tokyo Games as one of Team USA’s breakout stars, earning his fourth medal – three of which are gold – in the men’s 200 T37. It was Mayhugh’s fourth race in two days after competing in 200 preliminary heat and both the preliminary and final events for the 4x100 relay. Mayhugh broke his third world record in two days, besting the 22.26-second record he had set in preliminary heat with a blistering 21.91-second effort to claim gold.

Brittni Mason (Cleveland, Ohio), another up-and-coming star in her first Paralympic Games, took home her third medal of the Tokyo Games speeding to silver in the women’s 200 T47. Mason also took silver in her 100 race and was part of the 4x100 relay team that set a world record en route to gold yesterday. Despite her busy schedule, Mason ran a personal-best 25.00 seconds to secure her final medal of the Tokyo Games. Teammate Deja Young (Mesquite, Texas), took fifth with a season-best time of 25.53 after earning bronze in the 100 earlier this week.

Alexa Halko (Williamsburg, Va.) earned her fourth career Paralympic medal to get things started for Team USA in the morning session. Halko took bronze in the women’s 800 T34, her first medal in Tokyo. With her Paralympic program wrapped, Halko said she is now turning her focus to next year’s world championships in Kobe, Japan, and then on to qualifying for Paris in 2024. The only other American in the race, 20-year-old Eva Houston (Omaha, Neb.), rounded out her Paralympic debut with a sixth-place result.

Kym Crosby (Yuba City, Calif.) followed Halko’s performance by nabbing a bronze in the women’s 400 T13 competition. Crosby was out of medal position heading into the final 50 meters, but turned on the gas and sped ahead of three opponents in the final straightaway to claim her second bronze medal of the Games. She concludes Tokyo as a three-time Paralympic medalist. Fellow Team USA runner Erin Kerkhoff (Coralville, Iowa) finished sixth in her first Paralympic final.

After missing the podium by hundredths of a second in the men’s 100 T13 final, Isaac Jean-Paul (Evanston, Ill.) found redemption in the men’s long jump T13 to round out Team USA’s trio of bronze medals in the morning session. Jean-Paul, who is a two-time world championship silver medalist in the long jump, was sitting in fourth place heading into the sixth and final jump. He had just enough left in the tank, flying 6.93 meters to inch ahead of Britain’s Zak Skinner who had been in the bronze medal position at 6.91 meters. 

Also competing on track and field’s final two-session day was Tanner Wright (Fort Worth, Texas), who finished in the world’s fourth best time and his top result in Tokyo in the men’s 200m T47. Jonathan Gore (Fayetteville, W.V.) also had a strong showing taking fourth in the men’s 100 T64 final just behind Wallace.

Marshall Zackery (Ocala, Fla.) took sixth in the men’s 200m T35 while Rayven Sample (Jamestown, N.Y.) and Trenten Merril (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.), who earned his first career medal in the long jump earlier this week, were disqualified in their heats due to lane infringement in the men’s 200 T47 and the men’s 100 T64 respectively.

Track and field competition concludes with the marathon on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. EST. Team USA will have seven wheelchair athletes set to compete in the T54 categories, which are the first classes off the starting line. The marathon will be live streamed through NBCOlympics.com and the Olympic Channel. A full schedule of events is available here.  

-U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee-