Catherine Debrunner and Manuela Schär win gold in the 800 m wheelchair race at the Paralympics.
The Thurgau native and the Lucerne native won medals four and five for the Swiss delegation in the packed Stade de France. Catherine Debrunner won in the T53 category, Manuela Schär in the T54 category.
In Tokyo 2021, Catherine Debrunner had won bronze over the two laps of the track. Now she was in a class of her own. The athlete from eastern Switzerland put on a show of strength in her start-finish victory. She got off to such a brilliant start that not a single competitor was able to benefit from her slipstream.
Catherine Debrunner is competing over six distances in Paris and is the world record holder on the track in all but the 5000m.
Manuela Schär won gold in the 800 m at the Paralympics in Paris, as she did in Tokyo 2021. The Swiss athlete knew how to put the disappointment of the 5000 m race behind her. The 39-year-old was in third place until the final bend. She pulled away before the home straight and distanced her rivals significantly on the way to the fifth medal for the Swiss delegation.
The Lucerne native is already competing in her sixth Paralympics. It was the last track race for the 39-year-old, after which she will focus on the marathon. At her first participation in Athens in 2004, Manuela Schär won silver in the 200 m and bronze in the 100 m. She now has a total of six Olympic medals to her name.
SDA