Two Bodies, One Spirit: Inside the Runner–Guide Bonds that Power Para Athletics

As she crossed the finish line of the women’s 200m T12 race at the World Para Athletics Championships, Simran Sharma celebrated her second medal of the competition. Earlier, she had won gold in the 100m of the same category. Running right beside her was her guide, Umar Saifi.

Though they had crossed the line together, Saifi knew his job was done. He released the tether that bound him to Simran’s hand, draped the Indian tricolour around her shoulders, and stepped back to let her soak in the moment. Simran held on to his arm as he guided her to the mixed zone, where reporters awaited. There, Saifi again stood quietly behind her while Simran — with a gold and a silver, the best haul by any Indian athlete at the Championships — faced the media.

It’s always Simran who insists on bringing Saifi forward, eager to talk about their pairing.

Athletes in the T11 category (completely blind) and the T12 category (those whose visual field is restricted to about ten degrees or who can recognise a hand from less than two metres) routinely need a guide to run alongside them.

Simran and Saifi must be perfectly synchronised. They run in step, Saifi using subtle tugs and nudges to keep Simran within her lane. Any pulling or pushing would mean instant disqualification — as happened to the original winners in T12 women’s 200m silver, Alejandra Pérez López and her guide Eubring Maza Caraballo of Venezuela.

For runners and their guides, trust is everything. The partnership goes beyond teamwork; it often feels closer to family.

Do jism, ek jaan (Two bodies, one life)

Runner: Simran Sharma

Guide: Umar Saifi

(India)

T12 women’s 100m gold

T12 women’s 200m silver

Simran: When people ask what it takes to form a guide and runner partnership, it’s a very simple answer for me. Socho do jism, ek jaan (Think of it as two bodies having one life). A single person can’t do anything. We are a team and have to work together. The goal isn’t to be as fast as I can. It’s about being fast together. It’s important that both of us have the same mindset when it comes to sport.

We both have to train and prepare the same way. Just because Umar is my guide, it doesn’t mean that this medal means less to him.

He’s someone who supports me a lot. I ran six races at this World Championships. I was very tired in the morning of the 100m final. I couldn’t even bend my back. I was crying in the call room. But Umar told me you just get through today and then you can sleep for the next four-five days.

He knows when I’m getting agitated and he calms me down. I also think he’s very lucky for me because I’ve never won two medals at a World Championships before. Later this month Umar will be competing at the Under-23 National Championships and I’ll go with him to cheer for him. More than a guide, I see Umar as my  chhota bhai (younger brother).

Umar: I’ve never actually run as a guide runner before. I started running with Simran just nine months ago. It’s strange to have to run with someone else because I’m a national-level runner myself. Because both of us have our wrists attached with a tether, I had to change my position on the starting blocks and the way I positioned my hands. It was also strange because at the finish line you have to let your runner finish first. That’s always challenging because my instinct is to go first. But that’s the thing, you aren’t running for yourself.

‘Milagro is closer to me than my family’

Runner: Neri Roxana Quispe

Guide: Aldo Milagro Huaman

(Peru)

T11 women’s 1500m gold

Neri: I think the secret of being a good guide is to communicate well. That’s the number one thing. If there is no communication, it won’t matter how fast I am. It’s not easy to be a runner. I have been training for many years and when I was preparing for the World Championships I had to stay away from my family and my daughter. A guide is not just someone who runs along with you but someone who is closer to you than your family for those months that you prepare.

Aldo: The point of being a guide is that you have to share all the experiences, not just on the track. You have to be there through the hard times in training and daily life. It gives you that special connection that makes you feel as if you are part of the family. What unites us is our passion for running. It’s important that we both share the same values — commitment, discipline, desire, and above all, tranquility. Neri has been competing for the last 10 years and she’d never won a medal before. We had to wait so many years to win her first gold medal. Long before this reward, the real joy for me was working with her through all those years.

“When we fled as refugees, we had to flee as one”

Runner: Guillaume Junior Atangana

Guide: Donard Nyamjua

(Refugee Paralympic Team)

T11 men’s 400m gold

Guillame: I’ve been running with Donard since 2019. We started out competing in Congo. After the Tokyo Olympics, we realised there was no real hope for us as athletes in Congo, so we made the decision to go to England together. It’s one thing to run together on the track; it’s something else to make the journey by road, foot, and then boat as refugees. It would have been impossible for me to do it by myself. What I like about Donard is that he listens to me. He takes my opinion. At first, because I didn’t have my papers in England, there seemed to be no way that I could run again. But God has his plan, and we got our documentation that allowed us to run together just before the Paris Paralympics. We won a bronze medal there. I know it would not have been possible without him.

It’s not easy to run with a guide because he isn’t a machine. You depend on another person. If either of you is injured, you can’t train. But Donard is very special to me. I have no vision at all, which was caused by a bad reaction to medication, so Donard helps me not just on the track but in my day-to-day life. We are always together. We go shopping together. We chill and even go to the park together. I’m lucky I have him as my guide.

Donard: It never crossed my mind that I should head to England by myself. What would I do alone? The journey to England was a dangerous one. But Guillame told me that we would go as one. There was no guarantee of success. Guillame told me if the worst was to happen, neither of us would be to blame. But luckily we reached England safely.

In England too, our plan was always to run together. Of course, when we first arrived, there was no guarantee we would ever be able to compete again. Without any papers, we couldn’t even find a place to train. That was hard because the most important thing for a guide and runner is to train constantly together.

We did what we could — jogging early in the morning in the parks. When I got work, Guillame would either call to wake me up or knock on my door so that we could run before I left for my job.

We have gone through so much together that even now I prefer to spend my free time with him. There are times when we fight or get angry, but that happens with everyone. We know that we care for each other and will always run together. I think we are already one person because our spirit is already linked. That’s what makes us run freely.

‘To be a good guide you need to sacrifice yourself’

Runner: Nancy Koech Chelangat

Guide: Geoffrey Kiplangat

(Kenya)

T11 women’s 1500m silver

Geoffrey: I was a runner for the Kenyan team. In 2018, I won a bronze in the World Youth Championships in the 3000m steeplechase. But I decided to stop running for myself because I wanted to do something for my younger sister. She is six years younger than me. I wanted her to realise that there was a future for her as well.

A lot of my friends tried to discourage me, especially because I was still very young when I decided to become a guide runner and scale back my own training. They said, “You still have your career in front of you,” but I had made my decision. Running as a guide is very different from running for yourself, especially in the longer distances. I’m much taller than Nancy, which makes it difficult to match our stride frequency, but after many years together, we have learned to do this.

It’s very important to coordinate because running as a guide is not just about running as fast as you can. You have to be their eyes, constantly aware of what’s happening in the rest of the pack. You need to understand your runner and know whether she has energy or not. At the same time, you have to let her make the decisions. You are guiding someone else. You have to sacrifice your own ambitions to assist another person.

Nancy: I’ve been blind all my life. I never thought I would be a runner. Even though everyone where I come from runs, I didn’t even know what it was. One day in 2015, my brother told me he would make me run. I was very scared at first because I was afraid of tripping and falling. But my brother told me he would guide me, and that made me take the chance. I don’t think I would have started running if it wasn’t for him. Thanks to him, I’ve found a path for my own life. I won a bronze in the 1500m at Tokyo Paralympics and gold in the 1500m at the 2023 Paris World Para Athletic Championships. I will continue running as long as my brother runs with me.

‘Marcin helped me come out of severe depression’

Runner: Joanna Mazur-Dziedzic

Guide: Marcin Kesy

(Poland)

T11 women’s 1500m bronze

Joanna: I feel pure happiness when I run with Marcin. When you run with a guide for long, you come to depend on them deeply. It’s not just about familiarity; it’s about trust. I previously had another guide who was also my coach, and things didn’t go so well with him. We stopped working together after the Olympics. It was devastating when it happened but it was also for the best. For the last few years, I had been sick with severe depression. Losing my first guide was emotionally very hard for me.

I started running as a way to deal with my emotions when I began going blind. It helped me overcome the constant feeling of fear. It encouraged me to grow more confident with my surroundings. When I lost my guide, it felt as if all those fears came rushing back.

It took Marcin to get me out of that depression. Six months after the Paralympics, I asked him if he would want to run with me. He agreed almost immediately. His best quality is that he understands me. I enjoy running with him. When I’m stressed, he can feel it. Before the World Championships, I was really nervous and he made jokes so that I would feel relaxed. At other times I cry and then he just listens. He just says, “I’m here with you. Don’t be afraid. We are here together.”

Marcin: I used to run road races when Joanna asked me to be her guide. I saw it as a challenge. There was no question of saying no to her. I noticed that she was not at peace, and my focus was to help her find it again. Running was what gave her confidence once, so I had to help her rediscover that. I’m there to help her only as much as she’s willing to take. I can’t be faster than her. When she’s at the top of her speed, even a small touch can make her dizzy or cause her to fall. So I need to listen not just to my body but to hers. That is always a challenge because I have to make my ambition part of her ambition.

Published on Oct 08, 2025