Paralympics marathon runner stripped of medal after helping guide with cramps at finish

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A Paralympic marathoner was left “devastated” after being disqualified and stripped of a bronze medal for a mistake just meters from the finish line.

Elena Congost momentarily let go of her rope after her guide, Mia Carol, felt cramped at the end of the race on Sunday, the last day of the Paris Games.

The Spaniard was in tears after authorities ruled she had broken the rules, with the bronze medal going to Japan’s Misato Michishita. Runners in the T12 event for visually impaired athletes must be attached to their guide for the entire duration of the race.

“I’m devastated, to be honest, because I got the medal,” said Congost, who was born with a hereditary degenerative eye disease.

“I’m super proud of everything I did and in the end they disqualified me because I was 10 meters from the finish line because I had let go of the rope for a second.

“It was a reflex on the part of every human being to hold on to a person who fell next to you. But they say that I let go of the rope for a second and that since I let go, that’s it, there is no going back. I don’t understand that.

“It’s not about cheating, it’s not about dragging an athlete down. I have nothing left. I can’t find any explanation for this and it seems really unfair and surreal.

Congost, 36, won marathon gold at the Rio Games and silver in the 1,500 meters at London 2012.

Fatima El Idrissi set a world record in 2 hours 48 minutes 36 seconds to win gold, while fellow Moroccan Meryem En-Nourhi took silver. El Idrissi beat the previous record, set by Michishita in Hofu City in December 2020, by almost six minutes.

“I wasn’t running for a time, only for a medal,” El Idrssi said. “I wasn’t looking for the world record, just for gold, and now I have both.”

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