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Impaired athletes beat 1,500m Olympic winning time

RIO DE JANEIRO — Algeria’s Abdellatif Baka set a blazing pace in the Paralympics men’s 1,500m final, turning in a time of just 3min 48.29s at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, good for a gold medal.

Algeria’s Abdellatif Baka narrowly winning the gold medal ahead of Ethiopia’s Tamiru Demisse in the men’s 1,500m T13 final at the Paralympic Games in Rio on Sunday. Photo: REUTERS

Algeria’s Abdellatif Baka narrowly winning the gold medal ahead of Ethiopia’s Tamiru Demisse in the men’s 1,500m T13 final at the Paralympic Games in Rio on Sunday. Photo: REUTERS

RIO DE JANEIRO — Algeria’s Abdellatif Baka set a blazing pace in the Paralympics men’s 1,500m final, turning in a time of just 3min 48.29s at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, good for a gold medal.

Had he run that time at the exact same track in August, he would have eclipsed surprise Olympic gold medallist Matthew Centrowitz’s winning time of 3min 50s in last month’s men’s 1,500m final.

What is more amazing is that Baka was not alone, either, as the second, third and fourth-placed finishers in Sunday’s Paralympics final all bettered Centrowitz’s gold-medal-winning time in Rio.

“It wasn’t easy to get this gold medal,” said Baka after the race, as quoted by The Huffington Post. “I’ve been working one or two years nonstop, and it’s been very, very hard for me.”

Incredibly, Baka’s winning time was only 16s slower than the Olympic record, set by Kenya’s Noah Ngeny during the Sydney Games in 2000.

While many track and field observers considered the Olympic 1,500m to be an uncharacteristically slow and leisurely paced race — mostly because racing tactics outstripped outright speed — the distances in the Paralympics 1,500m T12/13 final were the same and the race was at the same venue as the Olympic final and did not involve men competing on prosthetic racing blades or in wheelchairs.

The only difference from the Olympic race is that the Paralympic T12/13 competitors have a visual impairment disability.

Baka, who set a world record of 3min 48.29s, held off a late charge by Ethiopia’s Tamiru Demisse, who took silver in 3min 48.49s. Kenyan Henry Kirwa (3min 49.59s) won bronze ahead of Algeria’s Fouad Baka (Abdellatif’s brother) who crossed in 3min 49.84s — all clocking faster times than Centrowitz.

Centrowitz’s shock win last month was the first title in the event won by an American since Mel Sheppard won the “metric mile” more than 100 years ago at the 1908 London Games. Centrowitz’s race was remarkable for its lack of pace — it was the slowest Olympic gold medal-winning time since 1932.

The athletes in Sunday’s Paralympic T13 race — a category for runners who are legally blind but with the least visual impairment — did not leave anything in the tank, setting off at pace and maintaining a high speed throughout. AGENCIES

MEDAL TALLY

Country Gold Silver Bronze TotalChina 40 31 24 95

Great Britain 24 14 19 57

Ukraine 19 14 19 52

United States 13 15 11 39

Brazil 6 14 7 27

Australia 6 10 12 28

Netherlands 6 8 11 25

Uzbekistan 6 4 11 21

SINGAPORE 1 0 1 2

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