Crestfallen Kenya will return from the Paralympic Games without a medal in athletics track after hopefuls in the women’s 1,500-meter T11 final faltered at the last hurdle, despite leading the race in the first three laps at Stade de France.

Kenya had won medals in track events since Henry Wanyoike’s victory in the 5,000m T11 at the 2000 Sydney Games, prior to this event yesterday morning.

Things backfired for Kenya when 2023 world 1,500m T11 bronze medallist Mary Waithera, guided by James Boit, settled for fourth with a personal best of four minutes and 41.48 seconds.

Nancy Chalengat, a bronze medallist from the 2021 Tokyo Games, finished a disappointing fifth in 4:45.10. The 2024 world 1,500m T11 champion, Yayesh Gate Tesfaw from Ethiopia, won with a new world record time of 4:27.68.

Tesfaw shattered her own previous world record of 4:31.77, set in May this year when she won the world title in Kobe, Japan.

He Shanshan from China clocked an Asian record of 4:32.82 to win silver, while South Africa’s Louzzane Coetzee, the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics silver medallist, claimed bronze with a time of 4:45.25.

The focus and pressure now shift to jumper Samson Ojuka, who will compete in the men’s long jump T37 final tonight at 8 pm (Kenyan time).

Ojuka will be the last Kenyan to participate in athletics.

Two more Kenyans are yet to compete: 2022 world champion powerlifter Hellen Wawira, who will compete in the women’s under-41kg category on Thursday, and para-cyclist Kennedy Ogada, who will compete in the Time Trials on Wednesday and Road Cycling on Friday.

Whether Ojuka, Wawira and Ogada will rescue Kenya’s fortunes remains to be seen.

Kenya has never failed to win a medal at the Paralympics since making its debut at the 1972 Games in Germany, although the country did not send a team to the 1976 Games in the United States.