Papaconstantinou wins bronze on busy day for Canadians

NEW DELHI (Athletics Canada) Marissa Papaconstantinou of Toronto scored Canada’s second medal of the 2025 World Para Athletics Championships on Wednesday, taking bronze in the women’s T64 100 metres with a time of 13.06 seconds.

“The race was definitely not a clean race on my part. I was definitely hoping for a little bit of a better start. I was pretty fast through the middle, though. I think I was able to make up for it,” Papaconstantinou said. “Getting back on the podium is always nice, so I really can’t complain.”

Now,  Papaconstantinou is used to being in a tight race against time, culminating in a close finish, with everything on the line.

What she isn’t used to is having that race happen before she event gets into the starting blocks.

A traffic jam in New Delhi delayed the official transport for athletes competing in Wednesday’s evening session. The bus ride to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium took two hours to reach its destination, leaving athletes from multiple countries only minutes to get ready for their evening session races.

“Considering some of those variables, it’s not a bad result at all. I was like, ‘Oh, it’s fine. We have time, We have so much time, Papaconstantinou said about the commute to compete. “I was saying that until the very end. Then I ran off the bus and put my blade on.”

Papaconstantinou will shift her focus on the women’s T64 200 metres event, on Sunday.

“It is nice that I do have a couple days between the two events so I can really get a little bit of a rest in between, fuel and hydrate. Then I’m going to go out there and have fun for the 200. I’ve been training really hard for the 200 specifically all year, so I’m really excited to kind of finally put those pieces together,” Papaconstantinou said.

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