Rabat – Moroccan para-athlete Saida Amoudi has won the bronze medal in the shot put F34 event with a throw of 8.21m at the ongoing Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
Featuring earlier today on the final Paralympic podium in her discipline, 41-year-old Amoudi finished in third place, behind the silver medalist Lucyna Kornobys from Poland (8.60m) and the gold medalist Lijuan Zou from China who broke the world record with a throw of 9.19 m.
After placing fourth at the Rio De Janeiro games in 2016 and finishing as a silver medalist at the world championships in 2019, Amoudi came to this year’s Paralympics to make hersfeld a spot on the world stage.
With 38 athletes participating in the ongoing Tokyo games, Amoudi’s medal is so far the only notable achievement from Morocco’s disappointing participation in the Paralympic games.
Amoudi also participated in the javelin throw event that took place on August 29, but she failed to make it to the podium after finishing in sixth place. Fouzia El Kassioui, another Moroccan para-athlete participating in the javelin throw, came in seventh place.
Morocco is now betting on Azeddine Nouiri, a shot put para-athlete, to win a gold medal for the Kingdom’s pride. The Moroccan champion has set his sights on a third Olympic gold medal after dominating the 2012 and 2016 Paralympics. He holds the world record for the shot put event at 13.10 m.
Since its first participation in the Paralympic Games in Seoul in 1998, Morocco has won a total of 27 medals: 12 gold, 7 silver, and 8 Bronze. Remarkably, Morocco has claimed 25 of its 27 medals in athletics.
Morocco’s best Paralympic performance was in Beijing 2008, when the North African country won seven medals.
In the recently-ended Olympics, the Moroccan delegation failed to make an impression. The country’s only moment of Olympic pride came when runner Soufiane El-Bakkali won gold at the 3000-meter steeplechase.
