Athlete is stripped of their bronze medal on the final day of Paris Paralympics Games because she took her hand off the rope to help her guide after they cramped up just a metre before the finish line tiny

PARALYMPICS 2024: Athlete is stripped of their bronze medal on the final day of Paris Paralympics Games because she took her hand off the rope to help her guide after they cramped up just a metre before the finish line tiny

PARALYMPICS 2024: Paralympian disqualified for helping her guide

A runner who competed in Sunday’s Paralympics has been denied her bronze medal in the T12 event, a competition held for athletes with vision loss.

Elena Congost, 36, was “devastated” when she was disqualified from the race because she took her hand off the rope, just for a split second, to help her guide Mia Carol when he cramped up just a metre before the finish line.

Officials said the Spanish athlete had broken the rules, awarding the bronze to Japan’s Misato Michishita.

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

“I’m super proud of everything I’ve done and in the end they disqualified me 10 metres 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.”

[ Elena Congost won gold in the marathon at the Rio Games and landed silver in the 1500 metres at London 2012. ]