The long wait for a medal at the Paralympics finally ended when Nancy Chelangat secured bronze after finishing 3rd in the 1500m T11 final. Chelangat finished with a time of 4:45.58 as South Africa’s Louzanne Coetzee failed to eat up ground on Mexico’s Rodriguez. Coetzee settled for silver in an Africa Record time of 4:40.96. Mexican Saavedra Rodriguez set a new World Record at 4:37.40.
"At some point during the race I felt that any medal would do because I was really exhausted. Glory be to God for this medal and I want to thank my brother (Geoffrey Kiplangat), who really encouraged me when I felt like giving up,” Chela said, also paying glowing praise for the government for standing by athletes living with a disability.
Geoffrey was also Chelangat's guide through the race as the two siblings embraced each other celebrating the huge triumph. The athlete who hails from Kericho and competes in T11 category of athletes with vision impairment hailed her guide who is also her brother Geoffrey Kiplangat for pushing her to the podium.
Another Kenyan in the race,Mary Njoroge finished third in her heat but failed to advance to the finals after the heat was adjudged to be the slowest of the two qualifying rounds. Meanwhile Kenyan rower Asiya Sururu Mohammed finished sixth in the Women’s PR1 single Sculls rowing final held at the Tokyo Waterfront. Asiya posted a cumulative time of 14:27.48 in her final round. Norwegian Brigit Skarstein extended her winning run after clinching gold in the event ahead of Moran Samuel of Israel and Nathaniel Benoit of France who won silver and Bronze respectively.
In the corresponding men’s race, Kenya’s Eric Sang was reinstated in the men’s finals slated for Tuesday morning after a successful appeal. Sang’s guide David Korir was tripped in the heats which made Kenyan officials launch an appeal on the incident.