A visually impaired Australian Paralympic runner lost his bronze medal after he let go of the rope that attached him to his visual guide as he crossed the finish line, authorities have ruled.
Long-distance runner Jaryd Clifford was finishing the T13 5,000m for visually impaired athletes on Saturday when International Paralympic Committee (IPC) officials ruled he had dropped the lanyard connecting him to guide Matt Clarke just before crossing the finish line, People reported.
Clifford made a mistake in releasing the leash that tied him to Clarke at that “crucial moment” and breached IPC rules, the Australian athletics team said in a statement.
“Jaryd needs guidance to run these distances competitively but it creates more margin for error and unfortunately today he realised that,” the Australian athletics team said. “He has the 1500m on the schedule (on Tuesday) and we know he will put all his energy and disappointment into that performance.”
His first guide was Tim Logan, to whom he was attached for the first 2,000 metres of the race. Then Clarke replaced him for the last 3,000 metres so that Clifford could maintain his pace. He was the only runner in this race to use a guide.
Davul Culbert, a commentator for Australia’s Channel Nine and an Olympic athlete himself, noticed the rule violation as soon as it happened.
“You have to hold the line all the way to the line, and it’s pretty clear that both athletes don’t have control,” Culbert said, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. “In fact, it looks like Jaryd let go of it just before the line.”
The gold medal was won by Spain’s Yassine Ouhdadi El Ataby and the silver by Russia’s Aleksandr Kostin, who competes under the Neutral Paralympic Athletes Association, according to People.
Clifford called the disqualification “pretty upsetting” but took it philosophically, vowing to aim for gold in his next event on Tuesday.
“I am truly disappointed that we made such a critical mistake today,” he wrote on X after the final decision. “Staying attached is a fundamental rule of guiding, and I am heartbroken that I lost my head in those final meters. I have so much more to give. I promise to give it my all in the 1500m on Tuesday.”
