Margarita Goncharova of Russia runs the last to win gold in the Women's 4x100m Relay - T35/T38 at the Paralympic Games in London
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Gold medallists Margarita Goncharova of Russia pose with her relay coleagues following the medal ceremony for the Women's 4x100m Relay - T35/T38 Final at the London Paralympics
© • Getty images
Born in 1991, the Russian has cerebral palsy athlete competes in classes T38/F38.
She started athletics training aged 13 and made international debut in 2005 in Netherlands.
In the same country one year later at the 2006 IPC Athletics World Championship in Assen, Goncharova won her first medals with two bronzes in the 100m (14.75) and 200m (29.85).
She repeated this success in the same events at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, where her biggest rival Inna Stryzhak from Ukraine broke both the 100m and 200m world records.
At the 2011 World Championship in New Zealand she won her first gold medal in the 200m (28.50) and added silver medals in the 100m (13.54) and 4x100m Relay T35/T38.
Nicknamed Ratatuy, she did even better at the 2012 Europeans in Stadskanaal, Netherlands taking gold in the 100m (13.70) and 200m (28.39). She also claimed long jump silver (4.72m).
Just a few months later Goncharova participated at her second Paralympic Games. In front of 80,000 spectators she became Paralympic champion for the first time beating her rival Stryzhak by 5cm to take long jump gold (4.84m).
Goncharova added two more gold medals in the 100m (13.45), just 0.08 seconds ahead of China’s Junfei Chen and in the 4x100m relay (54,86). After taking silver in the 200m (27.82), behind Chen who broke the world record, Goncharova left London as one of Russia’s most decorated athletes of the Games.
She will be looking to add more medals to her collection in 2013 and her rivalry with Stryzhak and Chen could be one of the stand-out features of the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships.
