Paris 2024: Rayane Soares breaks Marla Runyan's 29-year-old world record

The last day of the Para athletics programme at the Stade de France on Saturday morning (7 September) could not have got off to a better start as Brazil’s Rayane Soares smashed a 29-year-old world record to win the women’s 400m T13 gold.

Soares clocked 53.55 to grab her second medal at Paris 2024 – after a silver in the 100m T13. The previous mark (54.46) was set by USA’s Marla Runyan in January 1995 in Los Angeles, home to the next Paralympics.

Runyan is a Para athletics legend who won five Paralympic gold medals between Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996, and then went on to compete at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games – finishing eight in the women’s 1500m final.

"I had trust in myself that I could finish in a good time - that is what I've trained for,” Soares said. “To get this result in a competition, at the Paralympics, that's what has surprised me, due to all the anxiety and fear that I feel.” 

"I don't like lane eight and, last night, when I found out I was going to be in lane eight, it was very difficult to sleep. I was nervous, my heart was beating fast."

There was also a world record for Uzbekistan as Uzbekistan’s Nurkhon Kurbanova took gold in the women’s javelin F54. And James Turner of Australia grabbed “redemption” for a messed up start in Tokyo as he ran a Paralympic record to add the men’s 100m T36 gold to his 400m victory.

The women’s shot put F40 saw another first-time Paralympic champion with Lara Baars of the Netherlands setting a Paralympic record on her way to gold (9.10m).

Imagen

Here are all medallists of the morning session at Stade de France on 7 September.

Men's Long Jump - T13 Final
Gold: Orkhan Aslanov (Azerbaijan)
Silver: Isaac Jean-Paul (USA)
Bronze: Paulo Henrique Andrade dos Reis (Brazil)

Men's Shot Put - F34 Final
Gold: Mauricio Valencia (Colombia)
Silver: Azeddine Nouiri (Morocco)
Bronze: Ahmad Hindi (Jordan)

Women's Javelin Throw - F54 Final
Gold: Nurkhon Kurbanova (Uzbekistan)
Silver: Flora Ugwunwa (Nigeria)
Bronze: Elham Salehi (IR Iran)

Men's 800m - T34 Final
Gold: Austin Smeenk (Canada)
Silver: Chaiwat Rattana (Thailand)
Bronze: Rheed McCracken (Australia)

Women's 400m - T13 Final
Gold: Rayane Soares (Brazil)
Silver: Lamiya Valiyeva (Azerbaijan)
Bronze: Carolina Duarte (Portugal)

Men's 200m - T35 Final
Gold: Ihor Tsvietov (Ukraine)
Silver: Dmitrii Safronov (NPA)
Bronze: Artem Kalashian (NPA)

Men's 200m - T37 Final
Gold: Andrei Vdovin (NPA)
Silver: Ricardo Gomes de Mendonca (Brazil)
Bronze: Christian Gabriel Luiz da Costa (Brazil)

Men's 100m - T36 Final
Gold: James Turner (Australia)
Silver: Alexis Sebastian Chavez (Argentina)
Bronze: Yang Yifei (China)

Women's Shot Put - F40 Final
Gold: Lara Baars (Netherlands)
Silver: Renata Sliwinska (Poland)
Bronze: Raja Jebali (Tunisia)