Marcel Hug confirms his top form in the most difficult discipline for him. The 38-year-old secures his third medal at the Paralympics in Paris with bronze in the 800 m.
It was pure thrills. The men's 800 m race had been started extremely quickly, especially by the two Chinese athletes, and this naturally did not suit Marcel Hug. And so the man from eastern Switzerland was still in the last positions after 600 meters before he set off on a tremendous final spurt. In the final meters, he finally overtook Britain's Nathan Maguire to secure bronze. With a mini lead of 11 hundredths of a second.
Marcel Hug was beaming afterwards in the mixed zone: "I'm very happy. The Chinese are incredibly strong, but I beat the rest of the field. My arms almost fell off, they were really sore, but I think some of my opponents were too."
Marcel Hug and the 800 meters have a very special relationship, despite his deficits at the start. He won one of his first two Paralympic medals over the two laps of the track in Athens in 2004, and with the exception of the Games in Beijing in 2008, he has been on the podium in every important race since then. "I've never thought of it like that before," he said with a smile after his 15th Paralympic medal, "but it's nice that I have a good relationship with this distance too."
Three races, three medals: An excellent result for the 38-year-old, who took the slight disappointment at the start in his stride when the 5000 m gold medal slipped away from him on the final laps. "I'm satisfied, especially over 800 meters, but I also got the best out of the 1500 meters," explained Hug.
And further positive news: he can still achieve the goal of a gold medal that he set himself before the Games. His showpiece discipline will be the marathon on the last day of the competition on Sunday, and he has now impressively proven that his form is right.
The confidence is certainly there: "I'm well prepared and the equipment will also fit and I can also take confidence from the marathons in the spring. And as far as the distance is concerned, the longer the better."
