Paris, Sep 7.- The tireless Omara Durand will try today to seal Cuba’s performance at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games with a flourish, when she will take center stage in the final of the 200-meter T12 category.
Durand, accompanied by her guide Yuniol Kindelán, has already won the 100 and 400 metres in her class (for athletes with visual impairments) to reach 11 titles in the Paralympics and this Saturday she will try to retain the crown of the 100 metres on the track of the Stade de France.
On Friday, the 32-year-old Antillean, who has won two Paralympic gold medals in the distance, easily won the first semi-final heat with a time of 24.42 seconds, the best time of the session, thus confirming her favouritism.
The Cuban multi-champion, who also has 14 gold medals in World Championships and 12 in Parapan American Games, reiterated to Prensa Latina her ambition to maintain her status as an Olympic champion in the 100, 200 and 400 meters to conclude her brilliant career.
In Friday’s session, Venezuelan Alejandra Paola López and Indian Simram Singh dominated their respective heats with 24.59 and 25.03 seconds, a personal best for the South American to qualify for the 200m title.
Another medallist from the Paris competition, Iranian Hajar Safarzadeh, who took silver in the 400 metres, had the best time (25.06) of the other runners and qualified for the final.
Ukrainian Oksana Boturchuk (25.46), 39 years old and who has 10 Paralympic medals to her name: one gold, eight silver and one bronze, including the runner-up in the 100 metres and third place in the round of the oval in the current edition of Paris 2024, was left out of the medal discussion.
The bronze medallist in the 100 metres at both the French competition and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro edition, Germany’s Katrin Mueller-Rottgardt, also did not make it to the final, despite achieving her best time of the season (25.15 seconds).
Cuba will also be able to increase its medal tally today with the help of parajudoka Sheyla Hernández, in the 70 kilogram J2, who will debut in the quarterfinals against Australian Taylor Gosens.
Backed by three medals at the IBSA World Championships, two silver and one bronze, the Antillean will have among her main rivals the Brazilian Rebeca Silva, leader of the ranking, and whom she already won at the Santiago 2023 Parapan American Games, in which she was proclaimed champion.
Taken from Prensa Latina
Share on social networks
2024-09-07 19:45:21