Elena Congost, a Paralympic marathon runner, was disqualified from a bronze medal due to an unlucky mistake that occurred only two metres from the finish line. With a personal best time of 3:00:48, the 36-year-old Spanish competitor placed third in the T12 marathon event in Paris 2024, but it will mean nothing.
She was disqualified because, in violation of Paralympic regulations, she released the rope to assist her guide, Mia Carol, two metres from the finish line. According to Rule 9.7.5, competitors who do not comply with the requirement that all runners in the T12 marathon event be tethered to their guide risk being disqualified.
After her disqualification, the athlete said: “It’s unfair, surreal… ‘The next athlete was three minutes behind me. It was just a reflex action that any human being would have done – holding on to someone who is falling… But that doesn’t mean that there is any kind of benefit or help. In fact, it is clear that I stop dead.”
She added: “I can’t find any explanation for this. It’s sad because, in addition, I had just been without a scholarship. And I’m not going to get one now. They will leave me out of everything again when I have shown everything I can do… I have not been disqualified for cheating, but for being a person, for helping someone.”
Fatima El Idrissi won the gold medal with a world record time of 2:48.36, while Meryem En-Nourhi of Morocco won the silver in a convincing one-two.
Moreover, in the men’s T54 marathon, Wajdi Boukhili emerged victorious, while Marcel Hug of Switzerland secured his first gold medal of the Games in the T12 marathon.
Source: Metro