On Sunday evening in Rio de Janeiro, Algeria's Abdellatif Baka won the men’s 1,500-metre final in the T13 category (visually impaired) at the Paralympic Games with a world record timing of three minutes and 48.29 seconds. While that was a fantastic achievement in itself, the Rio Paralympics website pointed out that if Baka had contested the same race in the Olympics a month ago, he would have won.
The United States' Matthew Centrowitz had won the race in the Olympics with a timing of three minutes and 50 seconds. What's even more amazing is that, along with Baka, the para-athletes who came in second, third and fourth in the race also beat Centrowitz's timing, which means even they would have won gold had they contested the Olympics race.
Ethiopia’s Tamiru Demisse narrowly missed out on Paralympics gold and came in second after finishing just 0.2 seconds behind Baka at 3:48.49. Kenya's Henry Kirwa won the bronze with 3:49.59, and Algeria's Fouad Baka, who is Abdellatif's brother, came in fourth with 3:49.84.
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