'So ridiculous that it's funny': Jaryd Clifford misses bronze by 0.01 three days after bronze-stripping disqualification

PARIS: Australian distance runner Jaryd Clifford has fallen short of winning a 1500m bronze medal by just 0.01 of a second three days after having a 5000m bronze medal stripped from him due to a technicality.

The vision-impaired Canberra athlete produced a huge lunge at the finish line in a bid to snaffle Paralympic bronze in the T13 1500m on Tuesday, but Anton Kuliatin of Russia crossed the line before him by the slimmest of margins.

Clifford hit the track with heavy impact as he thrust himself over the line, then remained flat on his front for some 60 seconds, devastated and in disbelief at the Stade de France again.

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The athlete who pipped Clifford for 1500m bronze was the same athlete who was elevated to T13 5000m bronze when the Australian was disqualified and left "shattered".

On that occasion, officials ruled that he and guide Matt Clarke were not both holding the tether, which is a small piece of rope, as they crossed the finish line.

"It's almost so ridiculous that it's funny," Clifford told reporters after the 1500m.

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Russia's Kuliatin clocked 3:44.94 in the 1500m as Clifford crossed in 3:44.95.

Gold was won by Russia's Alexandr Kostin (3:44.43) and silver was claimed by Tunisia's Rouay Jebabli.

"I knew when I crossed the line I just had a feeling I was fourth," Clifford told reporters.

"The emotions? I said it the other day, but I guess it's just numb again.

"I get DQ'd in the last metre and [in the 1500m miss bronze by] 0.01. It's crazy that it's three years of work and the last metre of both races can define all of that. It's pretty brutal.

"... It is grief [after the 1500m], but it's a different type of grief [than the feeling after the 5000m]. It's just a type of exasperated type of grief."

Moments before talking to reporters in the media mixed zone, Clifford broke down while speaking to Nine's Kelly Cartwright.

He shed tears as his voice trembled, and shared an emotional hug with Cartwright.

Two moments on the home straight spoke volumes of Clifford's tenacity: when he upped the gears with about 70 metres remaining to surge past Spaniard Yassine Ouhdadi El Ataby, which put him in the bronze medal position, and when he threw himself over the line.

"Kurt Fearnley [the Australian wheelchair racing legend] said when you pull on this singlet you've got to give more than your best," Clifford said when asked in the media mixed zone what those moments said of his grit.

"Seventy metres I got another sniff and I thought I could go, but that's what everyone thinks there.

"I wanted to fight all the way to the line. I had a brain fade and dropped the stupid tether with a metre to go [in the 5000m], and that's probably the laziest moment of my career, and I just wanted to make sure I ran through that line [in the 1500m].

"Sport, man. It's so stuff. Four years to go back to the drawing board, and those guys in my class are pretty good."

Clifford, who's coached by Philo Saunders in Canberra, is confident he's got a lot more running in his legs.

"I'll be in Brisbane [for the 2032 Paralympics] and I'm not even capping it there," he said.

"We'll see. If I love running I'm just going to keep going."

Clifford and New Zealand athlete Anna Grimaldi are partners.

Grimaldi is contesting the women's T47 100m, 200m and long jump in Paris.

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