4 Paralympic athletes clock faster race time than Olympic gold medalist
At the Rio Olympics, Matthew Centrowitz Jr. took home gold in the 1,500-meter final with a time of 3 minutes and 50 seconds.
On Monday, four runners with visual disabilities bested that time in the same event at the Rio Paralympic Games.
That's right. Not just one runner. Not two. Not even three. Four.
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Algerian Abdellatif Baka led the pack, clinching gold and setting a Paralympic world record with a time of 3 minutes and 48.29 seconds.
Ethiopia's Tamiru Demisse and Kenya's Henry Kirwa got silver and bronze, respectively.
The fourth-place finisher? Baka's brother, Fouad Baka, who also recorded a better time than Centrowitz did at the Rio Olympics.
The four Paralympic runners competed in the International Paralympic Committee's T13 class, which includes visually impaired athletes. The T11 and T12 classes also indicate visual impairment, with a lower number corresponding to more severe impairment.
Athletes in the T13 class "have the least severe visual impairment eligible for IPC Athletics," according to the IPC. "They have the highest visual acuity and/or a visual field of less than 20 degrees radius."
It's important, though, to mention Centrowitz's strategy in the Olympic 1,500-meter final. The American gold medalist shot to the front of the pack early on, then used his position to control a tactically slow pace for the remainder of the race.
Still, Baka brings home a world record, a gold medal and a time stamp that makes him the fastest 1,500-meter runner in Rio this summer. Visually impaired or not, that is impressive.
Topics Olympics
