Toronto’s Marissa Papaconstantinou wins bronze at Para Athletics World Championships

On Thursday afternoon at the Para Athletics World Championships in Paris, Toronto’s Marissa Papaconstantinou sprinted to a 100m personal best of 12.95 seconds to win a bronze medal in the women’s T64 100m final. Her bronze is one of nine medals Team Canada has won at these Games so far.

🇳🇱@FleurJong_ is unstoppable ⏩⏩

After the gold in the long jump T64, she now becomes world champion in the women's 100m T64 with 12.47🥇🥇

🥈Sara BARRIO 🇪🇸
🥉Marissa PAPACONSTANTINOU 🇨🇦

📊Schedule & results: https://t.co/iDFcKODdZE @Paralympisch @TeamNLtweets pic.twitter.com/0rTK0AM3jT

— #ParaAthletics #PARIS23 (@ParaAthletics) July 13, 2023

Papaconstantinou blazed out of the starting blocks, taking an early lead in the first 30 metres. However, the Netherlands’ Fleur Jong used her long stride to her advantage, surging past Papaconstantinou to win gold in 12.47 seconds. Spain’s Sara Andres Barrio just passed the Canadian before the line, taking silver at 12.83 seconds. This was Papaconstantinou’s first time running under 13 seconds in the T64 100m.

This also marked her first medal in the T64 100m at a Para Athletics World Championship. She won a bronze medal in the same event at the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo. The 23-year-old trains in Toronto under University of Toronto track and field coach Bob Westman.

The T64 classification is for athletes with the absence of one leg below the knee. All T64 athletes have difficulty accelerating evenly out of the blocks and maintaining an even stride, particularly in the drive phase of the race.

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Three more medals for Canada

Papaconstantinou’s bronze was one of three medals for Team Canada at the Para Athletics World Championships on Thursday. Austin Smeenk of Oakville, Ont. won his second medal of the Games, winning a silver in the men’s T34 100m, adding to the bronze he already won in the T34 400m on Tuesday.

ZACH GINGRAS TAKES HOME THE 🥈

Zach Gingras runs the M T38 400m in 50.32s setting a personal best and 🇨🇦 record

Zach Gingras court le 400m M T38 en 50.32s établissant un record personnel et un 🇨🇦 record

📸 by Yonathan Kellerman pic.twitter.com/otqNSG7gzO

— Athletics Canada (@AthleticsCanada) July 13, 2023

Zachary Gingras of Markham, Ont., won silver in the men’s T38 400m in a new personal best time of 50.23 seconds. Gingras, 21, upgraded his bronze placing from two years ago at the Tokyo Paralympics in the same event.

Twenty-five Para athletes are in Paris to represent Canada from July 8 to 17 at the 2023 Para Athletics World Championships. CBC Sports is streaming the event on CBCSports.ca, CBC Gem and the CBC Sports app for mobile devices. The schedule is available here.