A visually impaired Paralympics runner from Australia lost his bronze medal after he let go of the tether attaching him to his sighted guide as he crossed the finish line, authorities have ruled.
Distance runner Jaryd Clifford finished the T13 5000m for visually impaired athletes on Saturday when International Paralympic Committee (IPC) officials decided he had dropped the tether that linked him to guide Matt Clarke just before he crossed the finish line, People reported.
Clifford was wrong releasing the bull bond him to Clarke at the “decisive moment” and breached IPC rules, Athletics Australia said in a statement.
“Jaryd needs guides to run these distances competitively, but that creates more margin for error and unfortunately today was a realization of that,” the Australian track and field team management said. “He has 1500m on his program (Tuesday) and we know he will put all his energy and disappointment into that performance.”
His first guide was Tim Logan, to whom he was tied for the first 2,000 meters of the race. Then Clarke replaced him for the final 3,000 meters so Clifford could maintain his pace. He was the only runner in that race with the help of a guide.
Davul Culbert, commentator for Australia’s Channel Nine and an Olympian in his own right, noted the foul as soon as it happened.
“You have to hold the tether all the way to the line, and that’s it pretty clearly it’s not in the hands of both athletes,” Culbert commented, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. “Actually, it looks like Jaryd dropped it right before the queue there.”
The gold medal went to Yassine Ouhdadi El Ataby of Spain, and the silver to Aleksandr Kostin of Russia, who competes under the Neutral Paralympic Athletes Association, according to People.
Clifford called the disqualification “quite upsetting” but took it in stride and vowed to go for gold at his next event on Tuesday.
“I am Absolutely pissed off that we made such a serious mistake today,” he wrote on the X after the final ruling. “Staying connected is a basic rule of guiding, and I’m devastated that I lost my mind in the last few metres. I have so much more to give. I promise to bring my all for the 1500m on Tuesday.”