On Wednesday, Tokyo — Saudi national Abdulrahman Al-Qurashi won the men’s 100-meter T53 competition at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
The 2020 Paralympic is being played in 2021 due to delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. This one-year delay is the same situation as the one faced by the summer Olympics, held in Tokyo last month.
The 23-year-old Saudi champion came third with an excellent time of 14.76 seconds, behind gold medalist Pongsakorn Paeyo of Thailand, who posted a Paralympic record of 14.20 seconds, and the second-placed Brent Lakatos of Canada, who secured silver with a time of 14.55 seconds.
Al-Qurashi’s medal is Saudi Arabia’s first of the tournament. The country’s other participant in the final Fahad Al-Junaidel came seventh with a time of 15.48 seconds.
The two Saudi athletes began their training for the 2020 Olympics. Finally, in 2021 both athletes qualified for the final of the men’s 100m T53 competition at Tokyo Olympic Stadium after both finished second in their first-round heats on Wednesday morning.
