Paralympian who was denied bronze in heartbreaking fashion suffers second devastating blow by the barest of margins
- Jaryd Clifford has been denied another medal at the Paralympic Games
- Australian runner disqualified in 5000m last weekend
- He missed bronze in Paris by 0.01 seconds
Jaryd Clifford is cursing his luck after the disappointment of his 5000m disqualification was compounded when the Australian finished fourth in the 1500m, by just a hundredth of a second.
Clifford ran a time of 3:44.95 in Paris on Tuesday, but was overtaken by Russian runner Anton Kuliatin, who runs for the neutral Paralympic team and ran a time of 3:44.94.
The narrow loss in T13 in the 1500m came after Clifford thought he had won a Paralympic bronze medal in the 5000m three days earlier.
But when he went off the track at the Stade de France three days earlier, the 25-year-old, who is partially sighted, was told his result was not valid.
Clifford was disqualified for untying the line he was using to guide Matt Clarke as they crossed the finish line.
“It’s almost so ridiculous it’s funny,” Clifford said.
“A DQ in the last meter and .01, it’s crazy that it’s three years of work, and the last meter of both races can define all that. It’s pretty brutal.”
Clifford was upset after his disqualification, while Kuliatin won the bronze medal.
Jaryd Clifford has suffered another Paralympic heartbreak in Paris
The Australian runner finished fourth by 0.01 seconds in the 1500m final
He was disqualified from the 5000m last weekend for dropping his tether
And the Russian was once again the one to beat Clifford to the podium, despite the Victorian desperately running to the finish line to secure a medal.
“(In the 5,000 meters) I had a brainfade about a meter from the finish and dropped the cable. That was probably the laziest moment of my career,” said Clifford, who doesn’t use a guide in the 1,500 meters.
‘I just wanted to run across that line, I wish I had dived earlier, but that’s sports, man… it’s so hard, four years to go back to the drawing board.’
Clifford, who won two silver medals in Tokyo, is eager to end his career with a gold medal.
“I’m even younger than (Yassine) Ouhdadi, the Spaniard when he won his first gold medal and he’s won a lot now,” Clifford said.
“I’ll be in Brisbane, and I’m not even going to talk about it. I love running, so I’m just going to keep going.”
“I hope I can come here one day (and talk to journalists) and be excited, but it’s starting to feel a bit like déjà vu.”