An Australian Paralympian runner who dropped the tether that connected him to his seeing-eye guide has been disqualified from a long-distance competition.
Distance runner Jaryd Clifford, who is visually impaired, was supposed to win the bronze medal in the T13 5000m at the 2024 Paralympics. However, Paralympics Australia has learned that the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) ruled that Clifford was not properly tethered to his guide, Matt Clarke, as he crossed the finish line.
Clifford had the third-fastest time overall of 16:12.45. However, he released the tether prior to crossing the finish line, according to the officials.
The Australian athletics team management said in a statement to Paralympics Australia: “Jaryd needs guides to run these distances competitively, but it creates more margin for error and unfortunately today was a realization of that… He has the 1500m on his programme, and we know he will be putting all the energy and disappointment into that performance.”
After the race, Clifford, the only runner in the competition to utilize a guide, expressed his dissatisfaction. The athlete admitted: “I went and saw mum and dad and my girlfriend and broke down… I had my little cry on the side of the track. If you talk about reacting to results as grief, I had my grieving moment. Out on the track, I was a little bit numb, I’m still a bit numb … I am pretty shattered, to be honest, if I’m frank about it, we went in with the aim of winning gold.”
The gold and silver medals were awarded to Yassine Ouhdadi El Ataby of Spain and Aleksandr Kostin of Russia, both members of the Neutral Paralympic Athletes Association.
Source: People