Paralympics marathon runner stripped of medal after helping guide with cramp metres from finish

Spain's Elena Congost (right) with her guide, Mia Carol Bruguera. Congost was denied the bronze medal because of an error near the finish line. Photo /Getty Images

A Paralympics marathon runner was left “devastated” after being disqualified and denied a bronze medal for an error metres from the finish line.

Elena Congost let go of her rope momentarily after her guide, Mia Carol, cramped up late in the race on Sunday, the final day of the Paris Paralympic Games.

The Spaniard was left in tears after officials ruled she broke the regulations, with the bronze medal being awarded to Japan’s Misato Michishita. Runners in the T12 event for athletes with visual impairments must be tethered to their guide during the race.

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

“I’m super-proud of everything I’ve done and in the end they disqualified me because 10m from the finish line, because I let the rope go for a second.

“It was a reflex act of any human, to hold on to a person who is falling next to you. But they say that I have let go of the rope for a second and since I have let it go, that’s it, there is no turning back. I don’t understand that.

“It’s not for cheating, it’s not for dragging down an athlete. I am left with nothing. I can’t find any explanation for it and it seems so unfair and so surreal, really.”

Congost, 36, won gold in the marathon at the Rio Games and landed silver in the 1500m at London 2012.

Fatima El Idrissi set a world record of 2h 48m 36s to win gold, with fellow Moroccan Meryem En-Nourhi landing silver. El Idrissi smashed the previous record from Michishita in Hofu City in December 2020 by nearly six minutes.

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