Rio Paralympics: Four Paralympians beat Olympic 1,500m winner

paralympians have been breaking barriers for years, but four men broke new ground when they smashed the times set in the 1,500-meter final at last month's Olympics.

Competing in the  men's 1,500m T13 final on Monday for visually-impaired athletes, the top-four finishers all ran faster than Olympic 1,500m champion Matthew Centrowitz Jr.

Abdellatif Baka of Algeria stormed to gold in a world-record time of 3:48.29, followed by Tamiru Demisse of Ethiopia with silver and Henry Kirwa of Kenya with bronze. Remarkably Abdellatif's brother Fouad, who just missed out on the podium in fourth place, finished in a time of 3:49.84, which would still have been fast enough to get Olympic gold. "It wasn't easy to get this gold medal," Abdellatif Baka said. "I've been working one or two years nonstop, and it's been very, very hard for me."