Spanish Runner Yassine Ouhdadi Clinches Paralympic Gold in 5,000m T13 Race

The 27-year-old athlete won the race ahead of the Australian Jaryd Clyfford (14:35.52) and the Russian Aleksandr Kostin (14:37.52). "It was incredible! From the start, I knew I didn’t have to take the lead. The race was going to be very long, and with the heat rising, I had to save energy for the end," Yassine said at the end of the race. I knew that if I had the strength to do a fast last lap, I could be on the podium," he added. The young athlete had already proven himself at the World Championships held in Dubai in 2019, where he won silver.

To read: Spanish-Moroccan Runner Mohamed Katir Shatters National Records, Eyes Olympic Medal

Yassine was born with inoperable cataracts in both eyes. At the age of 6, he arrived in Spain from Morocco with his family. "They wanted a better life for us, better conditions," he explains. The family opened a grocery store in Tortosa (Tarragona), which is run by Yassine’s brothers and in which he also lends a hand.

Yassine dropped out of school because he doesn’t like studying and also has difficulty reading due to his eye problems. He took his first steps in athletics at the end of 2014. At first, it was a hobby for him. "I would go down the mountain or the tarmac twice a week," he points out. He had never raced on the track before the 2019 championships.