A visually impaired runner has been disqualified from medaling at the Paralympic Games after helping a stumbling guide just before the finish line of a marathon.
Runner Elena Congost (Spain) was stripped of her bronze medal in a race in Paris on Sunday, the final day of the Paralympic Games, because she momentarily removed the leash that connected her to her guide, which was against the rules. Ta. He twitched and stumbled off his feet.
Blind and visually impaired athletes run with a guide, a sighted person who guides them down the right path. Both the guide and runner must always hold a tether, a short rope with a loop at each end, to connect them.
After a three-hour run, Congost was about 10 yards short of the finish line when her guide, Mia Carroll Bruguera, who was suffering from seizures, tripped her. Kongost went to help stabilize him, temporarily releasing his tether in the process.
They quickly recovered and crossed the line with a lead of more than three minutes over the fourth-place finisher, but the tether came loose and they were disqualified.
The International Paralympic Committee did not respond to requests for comment.
Two Moroccan athletes finished in the top two, with Fatima Ezala El Idrissi taking first place and Meriem En Nouri second. Congost was disqualified and the new bronze medalist became Japan’s Misato Michishita.
“I want everyone to know that I am not disqualified for any wrongdoing, but for being a human being and the instinctive response to help and support someone when they are down. I am disqualified,” he told Marca newspaper. Spanish sports newspaper.
“I am honestly shocked because I won the medal. I am very proud of what I have done, but in the end I was disqualified because I let go of the rope for a moment 10 meters from the finish line. It became.”
“And now that I’ve let go, there’s no going back.”
Congost was competing in the T12 category at the Paralympic Games. T11 is for near-blind athletes. T12 athletes have the least disability and T13 athletes have the least disability.
She won gold in the T12 marathon in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. She then retired from competing and raised her four children, who now range in age from 1 to 6 years old.
In a separate incident, an Iranian javelin thrower was stripped of his gold medal on Saturday for two violations: making a throat-slitting gesture and then holding up a black flag with red letters, which was judged to be a political statement.
Iranian authorities had insisted that Sadegh Beit Saya’s gesture was celebratory and that the flag was a tribute to Umm Al Albanin, an important figure in Shiite Islam.
“I unfurled the flag not to promote any political cause, but as a sign of respect and dedication,” Beit Saya told Inside the Games.
The competition was held in the F41 category for short athletes with a height of 4 feet 9 inches or less for men. India’s Navdeep Singh has been promoted to gold medal candidate.
