At this year’s Rio Olympics, American Matthew Centrowitz took gold in the Men’s 1500m when he crossed the finish line in 3:50.00. Centrowitz is lucky that he wasn’t up against any of his counterparts in the Paralympics.
At Sunday’s 1500m T-13 Final, the top four finishers all ran faster than Centrowitz, with Algeria’s Abdellatif Baka taking the top spot with a time of 3:48.29, which is also a new world record for blind/visually impaired runners. The previous record was held by Tunisia’s Abderrahim Zhiou, who ran a 3:48.31 at the 2012 games in London.
Abdellatif was followed by Ethiopia’s Tamiru Demisse and Kenya’s Henry Kirwa who turned in times of 3:48.49 and 3:49.59 respectively. Baka’s brother Fouad finished fourth, running a 3:49.84.
-Ravi Singh (@ravimatsingh)