 "Visually impaired Cuban para-sprinter Omara Durand celebrates with her guide Yuniol Kindelan Vargas after winning gold in women's 200m in the T12 category in what would be the final race of her career. Reuters")
Omara Durand got a fitting farewell from para-athletics on Saturday, 7 September after completing a triple-triple on the penultimate day of the Paralympic Games in Paris.
The visually impaired Cuban para-sprinter, running with Yuniol Kindelan Vargas as her guide, completed a third consecutive golden treble at the Paralympics by winning gold in the women’s 200 metres T12 event on Saturday, registering a season-best timing of 23.62 seconds.
It was same event in which India’s Simran Sharma, running with Abhay Singh as her guide, won bronze with a timing of 24.75 seconds, while Venezuela’s Alejandra Perez Lopez took home silver with a timing of 24.19 seconds.
This was after she had won the 400m and 100m races in the T12 category, registering season-best performances in both. Durand won the 400m race with a timing of 53.59 seconds and the 100m dash with a timing of 11.81 seconds. Before winning bronze in the 200m race, Simran had narrowly missed out on a medal in the 100m event after finishing fourth in the final.
The 200m race on Saturday was the final race of Durand’s glittering career and helped her complete a feat that is as incredible in sport, or para-sport, as it can get — completing a treble of trebles. Durand competed in the three aforementioned events in each of Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, and won gold in all of them.
Durand had also participated in the 100m and 400m events in London 2012, and won gold in both. Those two events, however, had taken place in the T13 category — in which the vision impairement is less severe compared to T12 athletes.
As a result, the 32-year-old signs off with 10 Paralympic gold medals in as many events — making her one of the greatest Paralympians of all time.