Tokyo Paralympics: Chelangat bags bronze

Nancy Chelangat won Kenya’s first medal at the Tokyo Paralympics when she bagged a bronze medal in 1500m T11 earlier on Monday.

Chelangat finished third after clocking four minutes 45.58 seconds, behind Mexico’s Monica Saavedra who took gold in a new world record of 4:37.40 and South Africa’s Louzanne Coetze who took silver in 4:40.96

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.

“I really did my best. My target was to win any medal and I am very happy to have won a bronze. It means a lot to me. It is actually him (Kiplangat) who pushed me with 200m to go, he told me to keep pushing and I really thank him for that,” said Chelangat who clinched silver five years ago in Rio, Brazil.

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.

“Sang will compete in the finals. When we launched the appeal and videos were replayed it was confirmed beyond doubt that our athlete was tripped and we are therefore happy to confirm that he will compete in tomorrow’s finals,” said Kenya National Paralympic Secretary General Elijah Aliero.

It was however bad in office for another Kenyan Wilson Bii who was disqualified in another heat of the men’s 1500m T11 after he was adjudged to have infringed on one of the rules.

Bii had also missed out on the podium in the men’s 5000m T11.