Madison de Rozario claims fifth Paralympic medal with bronze in 1500m

Fresh off winning gold in the 800m on Sunday, WAIS graduate Madison de Rozario has added bronze to her name in a wet 1500m.

A slow pace from the gun with the rain falling, saw pre race favourite Susanne Scaroni (USA) suffer in the conditions with the remainder of the field bunched together. de Rozario was caught on the inside boxed in and despite several attempts to squeeze through nobody was giving her ground.

On the final lap de Rozario dropped back and went around unleashing a quick turn of speed to race home and claim bronze, in what was her fifth Paralympic medal.

“I did not think I would to be honest,” de Rozario said when asked how she managed to get clear and charge to the line. “I didn’t know what to make of that race going in, I think there is so many unknowns, the 1500 was the one going in to these Games was the one I was definitely the most nervous about.

“Going in I was really struggling I think with confidence going in to that race, the 5000 didn’t quite go how I wanted and the heats obviously didn’t go how I wanted, the 800 was a nice little bit of a boost in there, but it was definitely a mixed bag going in and I didn’t know what to expect and the rain change the conditions again.

“I push okay in the wet, I can do that,” she added of the conditions. “It got really boxy and I think when you are in the pack like that the water spraying off the wheels just kind of makes everything worse and slipperier and more difficult and makes for a bit of a messy race.