When para athlete Hamza Gulec broke the adapter in his prosthetic running blade while practising on the warm-up track on Monday evening, right before his competition, two technicians ran in with their tools from the white hangar nearby. Minutes later, the blade was fixed, much to the Turkish long jumper’s relief. Gulec, a double leg amputee, went on to jump a new personal best, setting a championship record at 6.63 m in the T61 category of the men’s long jump at the World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi.

“It is rare that a jumping blade has such an issue right before the event but when it happens, it can hamper the mindset of the athlete. The idea is to make sure that para athletes don’t have to worry about last-minute wear and tear,” says Heinrich Popow, 2012 Paralympic gold me

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