Catherine Debrunner wins her fourth gold medal in her fifth final at the Paralympics. The 29-year-old from Thurgau wins the 400 m in the T53 category with ease.
Debrunner set a Paralympic record with 51.60. She was 1.85 seconds ahead of second-placed Samantha Kinghorn from Great Britain.
For Debrunner, the Paralympic track races thus ended with the optimum result. She won all the races in which she was the favorite. In the 100 m, her nominally weakest discipline alongside the strong British sprinter Kinghorn, she had not really expected to have a realistic chance of winning gold. Silver was therefore the optimum.
In her favorite discipline over 400 m, however, the athlete from Thurgau once again clearly showed her opponents that she is almost unbeatable on the track. Debrunner's third Paralympic Games will come to an end on Sunday with the marathon.
Silver for Manuela Schär
Manuela Schär narrowly misses out on her second gold medal of these Paralympics. The 39-year-old from Lucerne won silver in the 400 m T54 category.
Schär turned up the heat a little too late in her debut on the track. After triumphing over the track lap in Tokyo three years ago, she came within nine hundredths of the winning Belgian Lea Bayekula on the home straight. However, she was not quite able to make up the gap she had made up in the first 300 m and crossed the finish line in 53.14.
For Schär, who will focus on the marathon distance in the future, the ups and downs in Paris continue after the disappointing race over 5000 m, gold over 800 m, the fall over 1500 m and now silver.
However, the current leader of the Major Marathon Series will also be aiming for a medal in the final 42.195 km race on Sunday.
SDA
