Sammi surges to super silver in gripping T54 1500m final

Sammi Kinghorn was in disbelief as she stormed to a sterling second silver at Paris 2024 with a second-place finish in the Women’s T54 1500m final. 

The sprinter was overjoyed to come away with a medal in a stacked field, finishing only behind Catherine Debrunner of Switzerland, who set a new Paralympic record. 

Kinghorn finished in a time of 3:16.01 despite briefly stopping pushing with 200m to go after confusion over how much distance was left. 

“To think I was ever going to win a medal for 1500m is pretty mental,” she said. “I kind of got a bit disorientated and I stopped at 200m to go because I thought we were done - it’s so loud in here which we’re not used to. 

“Who would have thought a sprinter would get a medal over 1500m, I certainly did not.  

“I thought I’d be jostling for fourth, maybe squeeze a third. It was all pretty exciting.  

“I learned I need to count laps. But that noise is absolutely electric and I’m absolutely buzzing to come away with a medal.” 

Debrunner led the field for much of the race, but Kinghorn went with her, keeping the inside line and squeezing through a gap left by Yajuan Tian of China to move into a commanding position.

Susannah Scaroni of the USA came close to catching Kinghorn but the Melrose athlete had done enough to earn her second medal of the Games, with three opportunities still to come.

She added: “I knew she [Debrunner] would go fast and I thought I’m going to get as close to you as possible.

“The Chinese athlete came up at one point but she faltered and went into lane two so I snuck up on the inside which is sometimes a bit scary as you’re going 20mph and you’re rubbing elbows with people and thinking gosh if I fall that’s going to be quite sore but you need to go with it and see what happens.

“You really just have to put yourself out there - there’s some strong, strong athletes in there.

“To beat Susannah has blown my mind and to be able to sit on the back wheel of Catherine is incredible.”

Eden Rainbow-Cooper was similarly delighted to record a seventh-place finish in a time of 3:22.09.

Racing her shortest distance, she kept up with the pack as she now looks ahead to Sunday’s marathon on the road.

The 23-year-old said: “I’m really happy with it. To just finish the race for me was a big one and I’m happy with how I performed.

“1500m is not my strongest event so couldn’t really ask for much more.

“It’s been very, very difficult coming into my first Paralympic Games, having a crash and then having an incident yesterday in the heat.

“So, I feel really lucky that they made the decision to put me in the final. My head was a bit all over the place so coming in here trying to calm it down was difficult, but I think that I did the best I could.”

Melanie Woods, finished in eighth place, just over a second behind Rainbow-Cooper, as she admitted tactical decisions denied her the opportunity to finish higher up the field.

However, she talked of her pleasure in seeing training partner Kinghorn claim silver.

Woods said: “I train with Sammi so much throughout the year and to see her hard work turn into medals is so exciting and gives me hope that I can make the podium one day.

“It’s inspirational to see what she’s achieving out there.”