Spare a thought for Fouad Baka, everyone.
On Sunday, the Algerian competed in the 1500m – T13 Final, a race for the visually impaired, at Rio’s Paralympic Games.
Finishing in a time of 3 minutes and 49.5 seconds at the Maracana Stadium, this would have been enough to have won the 1500m final at the Olympic Games just weeks earlier. Matthew Centrowitz Jr of the USA won gold last month, crossing the finish line in the final with a time that was half a second slower than that of Baka.
Sadly for Baka however, this time wasn’t even enough for a place on the podium in a truly remarkable final
His brother, Abdellatif Baka, won gold with a world record time of 3:48.29 and managed to hold off a late charge from Ethiopian Tamiru Demisse who took silver (3:48.59) and Kenya’s Henry Kirwa who finished with a bronze (3:49.59).
“It wasn’t easy to get this gold medal,” remarked Abdellatif after his victory. “I’ve been working one or two years none-stop and it’s been very, very hard for me.”
The T13 class is one of three classes at the Paralympics for visually impaired athletes along with the T11 and T12. The higher the number, the less severe their impairment is.
