Aussie Paralympics runner goes public with big gripe after more brutal heartache at finish-line

Australian middle distance runner Jaryd Clifford has called for more extensive drug testing for Paralympics athletes in the wake of two heartbreaking near misses for the vision-impaired 25-year-old in Paris. Clifford was stripped of a bronze medal over a rules breach in the 5000m despite crossing the finish-line in third and also agonisingly missed out on bronze by just 0.01 secs in the T13 1500m.

Clifford's disqualification in the 5000m came after he dropped the tether that ties him to his guide before crossing the finish-line in the men's T13 final, which is against the rules. Vision-impaired runners must hold onto the tether until they've finished the race in its entirety. The bronze medal was instead awarded to Russian rival, Anton Kuliatin, who also beat him in the 1500m.

Kuliatin is among a host of Russian athletes competing at the Paralympics under a neutral flag, due to the country's bloody invasion of Ukraine. Russia was also previously banned from competing at the Tokyo 2020 Games and the 2022 Winter Olympics after being found guilty of state-sponsored doping violations.

Jaryd Clifford calls for more drug testing in para-sport

That previous saga prompted an unexpected response from Clifford when asked to give his thoughts on the presence of Russian athletes at the Paralympics. "If we're talking about drugs and sport then I just really do hope they're clean," Clifford said. "I would like to be drug tested more often. I don't think there's enough drug testing in para-sport. Like, I don't get tested enough.

"So I think that could be something to improve our sport. But I think that's a resource thing." Only 15 Russians competed at the Paris Olympics under the 'neutral' flag but there have been some 88 at the Paralympics. Their nationality is not made evident during competition and neither the Russian national anthem is played, nor the Russian flag raised during medal ceremonies.

"I trust the people who make the decisions [about Russia]. I trust them because if we can't trust them the sport's in a bad place, so I guess it's trust out of good faith," Clifford added. "I think there is a place for boycotts in sport, but I think the boycotts should have to be fair across the board."

And the Aussie says he has no hard feelings or harbours any sort of resentment about being beaten by an athlete from Russia. "I go in and everyone seems to be a nice person and I hope. They beat me, they exist on this planet and they're better than me. I don't have any hard feelings [about a Russian beating him for bronze]."

Jaryd Clifford misses out on bronze medal in Paris again

Clifford's second bronze medal heartbreak in Paris came after a desperate lunge from the Aussie at the finish line. Despite the best efforts of the 25-year-old, Clifford was pipped by Kuliatin in the narrowest of margins and cut a shattered figure as he lay on the track for several moments after the race.

Kuliatin showed his class by offering to help the heartbroken Aussie off the track. "I've always prided myself on sportsmanship," Clifford said afterwards. "There's all this Russia stuff, but at the end of the day we're eight blokes with vision impairments and we're middle-distance runners, so we're a pretty niche group and there's some camaraderie from that."

It came after Clifford took to social media after his 500m disqualification to say he was "absolutely gutted" at the "critical mistake" that cost him a bronze medal. "Remaining tethered is a fundamental rule of guiding and I’m shattered that I lost my mind in those final metres," he posted.