Paralympic runner stripped of bronze, disqualified after breaking rule at finish line
A visually impaired Paralympian runner lost his bronze medal after being disqualified for breaking a tether rule at the finish line.
Jaryd Clifford finished at 15:55:05, the third fastest time during the men’s T13 5000m running event on Saturday, Aug. 31, which would have earned him a bronze medal. However, International Paralympic Committee (IPC) officials said that he breached the rule after releasing the rope connecting him to his eye guide, Matt Clarke, before crossing the finish line.
During the event, Clifford had two guides, Clarke and Tim Logan. He was tethered with Logan for the first 2,000 meters of the event before switching to Clarke for the last 3,000 meters.
“Jaryd needs guides to run these distances competitively, but it creates more margin for error and unfortunately today was a realization of that,” an Australian athletics team management said in a statement, as per Paralympics Australia’s report.
For his part, the 25-year-old Australian Paralympian said he was “pretty shattered” with the results.
"I went and saw mum and dad and my girlfriend and broke down. I had my little cry on the side of the track. If you talk about reacting to results as grief, I had my grieving moment. Out on the track, I was a little bit numb, I'm still a bit numb,” Clifford said, as per Yahoo! Sport. “I am pretty shattered, to be honest, if I'm frank about it, we went in with the aim of winning gold."
In an Instagram post, Clifford added that he is “absolutely devastated” for making such a “critical mistake.”
“Remaining tethered is a fundamental rule in guiding and I’m shattered that I lost my mind in those final meters,” he said.
Spain’s Yassine Ouhdadi El Ataby took home the gold while Aleksandr Kostin from Russia bagged the silver medal at the event.
Despite this, Clifford promised to “bring everything [he’s] got” for the 1,500m event on Tuesday, Sept. 2.
Clifford has a rare genetic disease called “best disease” which causes him to have low vision. According to the Cleveland Clinic, there’s no cure for the disease yet, but its symptoms can be managed through therapy or using tools like corrective lenses.
He previously took home two silver medals and a bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Games.