The Final Medals At The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games Are Won!

It’s been a brilliant Paralympic Games in Paris, with the track bringing us many recording-breaking performances. Here we cover the marathons, some of the notable performances and records, and what is perhaps the most unique event in Para Athletics: the Universal Relay. 

UNIVERSAL RELAY SILVER FOR TEAM GB

The 4x100m Universal Relay is a defining event on the Paralympic track. It’s four athletes with different classifications and they go in the order of visually impaired runner, amputee, cerebral palsy or equivalent, and a wheelchair athlete on the final leg. Each team has two males, two females, and they pass with a tag in a relay takeover zone.  

China’s team won in a new world record of 45.07, with Team GB winning silver in 46.01. The GB team was Zac Shaw, Jonnie Peacock, Sammi Kinghorn and Ali Smith. USA won bronze. 

Kinghorn has had a wonderful Games, winning one gold and four silvers!

THE PARALYMPIC MARATHONS

The final Para Athletics event at the Paris 2024 Paralympics were the marathons, and four races took place on Sunday morning. The Men’s and Women’s T54 for wheelchair athletes, and the Men’s and Women’s T12 for visual impairment, with some running with guides. 

On a different route to the Olympic Games marathon which featured significant hills, the Paralympic marathon course started with a few laps around Parc Georges Valbon in the north of Paris, winding through Paris, including the Champs-Elysées and the Arc du Triomphe, with a finish on the Esplanade des Invalides.

HAT TRICK OF GOLDS FOR THE SILVER BULLET

Switzerland’s Marcel Hug, one of the great wheelchair athletes, put in a dominant race, leading from early and extending his lead throughout, so that when he took the spectacular loop around the Arc du Triomphe, the racers in the second and third were barely in sight. He won his third consecutive Paralympic marathon gold in a time of 1:27:39. China’s Jin Hua was second, and Japan’s Suzuki Tomoki in third. 

Nicknamed ‘The Silver Bullet’ for his shiny silver helmet, Hug won four golds in Tokyo, so his two silvers and one bronze in Paris were perhaps disappointing by his very high expectation, but he made up for it by winning the Paralympic marathon. It’s another golden moment in a career that’s seen him win Boston Marathon (seven times), London Marathon (six times), New York City Marathon (five time), Berlin Marathon (four times) and Chicago Marathon (twice). He’s also taken part in every Paralympics since Athens 2004. 

GB’s David Weir was fifth in what’s likely the 45-year-old’s final Paralympic race, and if so, he finishes with six Paralympic golds, two silvers and two bronzes. 

Marcel Hug leading the marathon. Image from ParaAthletics on X

FIFTH GOLD OF THE GAMES FOR DEBRUNNER!

It was an equally dominant Swiss performance in the Women’s T54 Marathon, with Catherine Debrunner having a two minute lead at halfway, and winning by more than four minutes, to get her fifth gold of the games. She finished in 1:41:50 to win her first Paralympic marathon. Australia’s Madison De Rozario, the reigning Paralympic champion, was second, and with USA’s Susannah Scaroni in third. 

It’s De Rozario’s second medal in Paris after bronze in the 5000m, and Scaroni won her fourth medal, and returns home with a silver and three bronzes (5000m, 800m, 1500m and marathon). 

Debrunner has had a sensational Paralympics, winning five golds and a silver in Paris, showing astonishing range, winning silver in the 100m, then gold in the 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m and the Marathon.

BOUKHILI AND EL IDRISSI ARE THE MARATHON T12 CHAMPIONS!

In the Men’s T12 Marathon, Tunisia’s Wajdi Boukhili and Morocco’s El Amin Chentouf separated themselves from the rest of the runners from early on, passing through 10km together in 33:57, and remained side-by-side at halfway in 1:11:35. 

Boukhili made a breakaway around 27km, moving ahead of Chentouf, who was Paralympic marathon champion in Rio and Tokyo and holds the Paralympic record (2:21:43). The lead extended as Boukhili pushed ahead and Chentouf dropped back, and was then overtaken by Spain’s Alberto Suarez Laso with a couple of kilometres remaining. 

Boukhili won in 2:22:05 to become Paralympic champion. Suarez Laso finished second in 2:24:04, with the 46-year old adding to the Paralympic marathon gold he won in London and silver in Rio. Chentouf hung on for bronze a further 30 seconds back. 

In the Women’s T12 Marathon, it was a world record-breaking solo run to victory for Morocco’s Fatima Ezzahra El Idrissi. She won in 2:48:36, adding marathon gold to a silver in the 1500m – T13. Her time was almost six minutes quicker than the previous world record. 

Two runners with guides finished in the silver and bronze medal positions. Morocco’s Meryem En-Nourhi and guide Abdelhadi El Harti finished second in 2:58:18, also inside the previous Paralympic record.

There was drama and heartbreak for third-placed finisher as Spain’s Elena Congost and guide Mia Carol Bruguera crossed the line in third in 3:00:48. As they approached the finish, the guide was clearly struggling, and just a couple of metres from the line appeared close to falling, with Congost grabbing hold of him, but in doing so she briefly let go of the guide rope between them. It led to her disqualification and Japan’s Misato Michishita was awarded bronze.

MANY MORE MEDALS WON AND RECORDS BROKEN!

In the Women’s 400m – T53, Catherine Debrunner continued her golden Games by winning ahead of GB’s Sammi Kinghorn – and both, as we’ve seen above, went on to win more medals. This was Debrunner’s fourth gold and fourth Paralympic record. 

GB’s Ben Sandilands won gold in the Men’s 1500m – T20 in a new world record time of 3:54.40. 

There was a GB gold and silver in the Women’s 800m – T34 with Hannah Cockroft finishing ahead of Kare Adenegan, in a repeat of their positions in the Women’s 100m – T34. 

We saw some legendary performances on the track. Cuba’s Omara Durand won the 11th Paralympic title of her career by winning gold in the Women’s 200m – T12. She won two golds in London, three in Rio, three in Tokyo and three in Paris, and will now retire. And Poland’s Barbara Bieganowska-Zajac won her fourth consecutive gold in the Women’s 1500m – T20. 

There were further world record runs in the: Women’s 400m – T13 by Brazil’s Rayane Soares da Silva; Women’s 400m – T38 by Columbia’s Karen Palomeque. And Paralympic records were broken in the: Women’s 100m – T37 by China’s Wen Xiaoyan; in the Men’s 800m – T54 by China’s Jin Hua.

Lead photo by Imagecomms