India’s hopes of adding another medal to its tally in 2016 Rio Paralympics faced a setback as 22-year-old Ankur Dhama finished second in the first of the three 1500m heats but failed to book a spot for himself in the semi finals. Dhama was up against some of the famed names like Poland’s Aleksander Kossakowski, Chile’s Cristian Valenzuela and Turkey’s Deniz Semih among others. The competition proved a testing one for most of the athletes and their guides as the sun beat down mercilessly over the Brazilian capital of Rio on Sunday.
Earlier Poland’s Aleksander Kossakowski took an early lead and led the competition for most part of the distance. Kossakowski led at the 400m, 800m and even 1200m mark but was rendered disqualified before the finishing line. Kossakowski wasn’t the only athlete who was left heartbroken due to the disqualification as Chile’s Cristian Valenzuela and Iran’s Hamid Eslami too met the same fate during the course of their 1500m long run.
As a result of the disqualification, Deniz Semih who with the help of his guide Muhammad Emin Tan finished the 1500m in 4 minutes, 11 seconds, finished first in the first of the three heat to qualify for the semi finals. India’s Ankur Dhama, who ran with his guide Vipin Kumar, took approximately 4 minutes and 37 seconds to finish the race. Dhama’s personal best was 4 minutes and 16 seconds, which he recorded at Sonepat in last July and the athlete must have hoped to better it at the Paralympics. But things didn’t go in favor of the athlete as he started off slowly. The late surge never came, leaving him 26 seconds behind the leader.
The race had its moments as Semih started slowly butquietly overtook Kossakowski when only a few hundred meters were left. Guatemala’s Oscar Raxon who took approximately 20 seconds more than the second placed Dhama to cover the 1500m stretch settled for the third position. From the other two heat events, Kenya’s Wilson Bii and Mushai Kimani of the same country progressed to the finals of the event. Kimani clocked 4 minutes and 4 seconds and won by a whisker as Brazil’s Odair Santos missed qualification by a few milliseconds.
Dhama is a 22 year old Masters student in University of Delhi who had become the first blind athlete from India in 30 years to participate at the Paralympics. His partner Vipin Kumar is also a student like him, albeit from Nagpur University.
