16 September 2016
MEDALS: 14
Gold: 6
Kevin Paul – Swimming
Hilton Langenhoven – Athletics
Charl du Toit – Athletics
Ernst van Dyk – Cycling Reinhardt Hamman – Athletics
Charl du Toit – Athletics
Silver: 4
Ilse Hayes – Athletics
Ntando Mahlangu – Athletics
Anrune Liebenberg – Athletics
Jonathan Ntutu – Athletics
Bronze 4
Fanie van der Merwe – Athletics
Tyrone Pillay – Athletics
Zanele Situ – Athletics
Dyan Buis – Athletics
It’s Du Toit at the double as he gets 400m gold in Rio!
By Mark Etheridge
Charl du Toit became Team South Africa’s first double medallist of the Rio Paralympics on Friday.
He added to his T37 gold medal in the 100m dash at the weekend by snatching another victor in the 400m event.
That meant that the 23-year-old boosted the team’s tally to 14 medals with just Saturday and Sunday’s events to go.
The Johannesburg-born, Stellenbosch-based athlete clocked 51.13 seconds for a Paralympic record as he won gold by almost two seconds from Venezuela’s Omar Monterola (52.93). ‘I’m just so thankful for this,’ said Du Toit. ‘I woke up this morning and wasn’t feeling too good but the team doctor woke up early and helped me get rid the stuff in my chest, a wonderful medical team we have here.
‘And I am also surrounded by a wonderful training group. You know, at the beginning of the year we all got a theme to train by and mine was “Smiling Lightning”, said the man who has made a smile his trademark during these games.’
Speaking of his race he said: ‘My wonderful coach, Suzanne Ferreira, and I spoke before the race and we agreed that I’d be conservative for the first 200m and then accelerate form there and it all worked out.
’To get two gold medals at my age, never in my wildest dreams did I expect that but then again, I train with some of the best athletes in the world.
‘Me and my family have been through a few tough months but hopefully I did my country proud.’ Also on the track T47 athlete Anruné Liebenberg was unable to emulate her silver medal in the 400m as she ended fourth in the 200m final with a time of 26.57.
But Dyan Buis, who won bronze in the T38 long jump on Thursday did enough to get through to the 400m final with a 54.66 finish in the heats.
In the pool Emily Gray, possibly ended her Paralympic career with the way she started it, in the 100m backstroke (S9). She was agonisingly one spot away from making the final, ninth fastest in the heats with a time of 1:16.42.
In cycling Craig Ridgard ended 28th in the final of the C1-3 road race while Goldy Fuchs was ninth in the T1-2 classification.
And there was to be no joy for four-time Paralympian Philippa Johnson and Lord Louis in the Individual Freestyle Test. The dressage combination were eliminated.
Friday’s golden action from Du Toit sees the team sitting in 19th spot with 14 medals.
Picture of Du Toit dashing to his gold medal double courtesy of Wessel Oosthuizen/SASPA
Four more medals come Team SA’s way on bumper day in Rio
By Mark Etheridge
It was medals galore for Team South Africa on Thursday, as another four rained down in Rio on their best day of the 2016 Paralympics.
Two golds, a silver and bronze joined the nine medals already harvested by the team and taking their tally to 13 with three days of competition to come.
After Ernst van Dyk (H5 hand cycle road race) and Reinhardt Hamman (F38 javelin) had won gold in the afternoon, the evening’s track and field events saw Ndodomzi ‘Jonathan’ Ntutu sprint to silver in the T12 100-metres and Dyan Buis bounded to bronze in the T38 long jump.
Ntutu ran 11.09 seconds for a season’s best time and Buis brought bronze back to the Athletes’ Village with a best of 6.58 metres on the night.
Beating Ntutu to gold was Cuba’s Leinier Savon Pineda in a time of 10.97.
‘Actually I still feel I could have done a bit better, so maybe slightly disappointed but hey, it’s always a pleasure to get a medal for my country,’ was Ntutu’s initial reaction after the race. ‘I obviously planned to peak here but my start… it was the worst I’ve had for a while.
‘This was a much more difficult class than in 2012 so I guess getting a silver here is still a good experience. Now I’ve still got the 200m heats, semis and hopefully a final coming up. I think I’m one of the last South Africans competing at the Games, so no holiday for me.’
As for Buis, he had to face a twin-pronged podium threat from Chinese duo Jianwen Hu and Huangho Zhong who took gold and silver in 6.64 and 6.59m respectively.
That meant that, much like fellow long jumper Luvo Manyonga at last month’s Olympics, just a centimetre separated him from higher honours.
‘After the other night when I was so close in the 100m but just missed a medal, tonight I was very happy and really enjoyed the competition. Like I always do, I came out and every jump I just did it for God,’ said the Stellenbosch based athlete.
‘I actually thought the gold medal was even in reach .. but still, I’m so happy with the PB as well – and on my last jump.
‘I really went for it and gave it my all because everything was so close but it was good to have buried those 100m memories and being able to just focus on the long jump tonight.’
Despite the further two medals by Ntutu and Buis South Africa still slipped one position in the medals table after the Van Dyk/Hamman double gold had moved them from 27th to 19th. They’ll start Friday’s action in 20th spot.
In other finals involving South Africans, teenager Ntando Mahlungu ended fifth in the T42 100m final (12.57) while London Paralympian Chenelle van Zyl took fourth spot in the F34 shot put with a best heave of 8.49m on the night.
Also on the track, like Hilton Langenhoven in the T12 400m semi-final earlier in the Games there was heartache for blind runner Louzanne Coetzee as she was also disqualified.
She was running in the T11 heats with guide Khothatso Mokone at her side, she ended third but was disqualified under IPC rule 7.10 which states that the ‘guide runner must not push or pull or otherwise propel athlete’.
There’ll be heart-ache for both runner and guide right now but at just 23 years of age, there’s lots more to come for Coetzee.
Heats action saw Charl du Toit (T37) go through to the final of the 400m with a time of 55.28 while Anruné Liebenberg’s season’s best of 26.63 in the T47 200m also saw her booking a place in the final.
In the only swimming involving South Africans Hendri Herbst took fourth spot in the S11 100m freestyle final with a time of 59.71.
Apart from Van Dyk’s gold out on the road, hand-cyclist Justine Asher took 12th in a time of 1:37.36 in a tough combined H2-4 class.
Picture of Buis and Coetzee in action on Thursday, courtesy of Wessel Oosthuizen/SASPA
Plucky Paull puts disappointment behind him and targets Tokyo
By Mark Etheridge
Debut Paralympian Graham Paull should be in the pits of despair after his disqualification from the KL1 200-metre canoe heats earlier this week.
After qualifying for the semi-final in heat two, a technical issue with his boat saw him being disqualified and leaving a Paralympic dream in tatters.
But, in true Paralympic spirit, Paull picked himself up and was back at the Lagoa Stadium on Thursday watching the finals with girlfriend Nicky Morgan and dreaming of what could have been.
‘I was in complete disbelief when I heard that my boat had failed boat control, I never dreamt that something like this would happen,’ he told Road to Rio 2016.
‘I’m absolutely devastated and hugely disappointed that this is how my first Paralympic journey has ended, but all I can do now is pick myself up and look forward to the future.
‘The Paralympic experience has been an amazing one. I’ve met so many incredible athletes and people. It’s an experience that I will take with me forever. Now I plan to go home and regroup and then focus on Tokyo 2020.’
Helping to explain exactly what happened, Paull’s manager in Rio, Fouche van Tonder explained: ‘Graham was disqualified because his boat was under weight by 0.02kg rounded up to 0.05kg. I did appeal and the boat was put on the scale again. I asked if they could put the boat on the same scale as they used in boat control but the answer was no. They did check if both scales had the same calibration and it was confirmed that they did thus Graham was disqualified.
‘The only reasons that I can think of how this could have happened was that they fixed the boat after boat control informed us that the nose of the boat was skew,’ he told Road to Rio 2016.
‘I took it back to the manufacturer and got the nose straightened. The boat then went through boat control and was fine and on 12kg which is perfect.
‘I even put in an extra 10g just in case. After this the manufacturer buffed the boat to make it smooth where they had fixed it. This must have taken the 12g off the boat. Either it was due to the fixing of the nose or there was a difference between the two scales used.
‘I was told that a second appeal would not be allowed as it was already more than 20min after the race and there was not enough time between the heat and the semi final left for them to look at it. I was also told that there was nothing further to be done.’
So while one dream has been dashed, it seems Paul’s already daring to dream again… time for Tokyo!
SUPERSPORT Coverage
SuperSport will broadcast two 24-hour channels (SS13 and SS14) in High Definition for the duration of the Games with producers choosing the best of four feeds from Olympic Broadcast Services. What isn’t broadcast live will be broadcast on a delayed basis.
The popular Blitz channel will carry regular Paralympic news items, while the two TV channels will be available via streaming via www.supersport.com and the SuperSport and DStv Now apps, as well as social platforms and DStv Catch Up.
Daily two-hour highlights packages will be scheduled on SS Select and SS9.
TEAM SA APP for Paralympics.
Following on from the Olympic Games, Team SA has its own App for all South African sports supporters wanting to follow Team SA athletes at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Loads of information can be found on the very easy to navigate App, bringing you results, competition schedules, athlete profiles, images and videos of the athletes plus more.
The App is free, users can download the App and it’s available globally. https://itunes.apple.com/za/app/teamsarise/id1133481695?mt=8 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details…
Support your team and keep up to date on daily sporting events in Rio with #TeamSArise mobile.
Results from Friday 16 September 2016
Day 9 – 16 September
SWIMMING:
Heats:
Emily Gray – 100m Backstroke (finished 3rd in heat 1, time of 1:16.42, however failed to qualify for the finals)
ATHLETICS:
Dyan Buis 400m T38 (finished 2nd in heat 2, time of 54.66 and qualifies for the finals) Charl du Toit 400m T37 (GOLD in a time of 51.13)
Anrune Liebenberg 200m T47 (finished 4th in a time of 26.57 a seasons best)
Ndodomzi Ntutu 200m T12 (heats – finished 3rd in a time of 22.91 and qualifies for the finals) Hilton Langehoven 200m T12 (heats – finished 1st in a time of 22.27 and qualified for the finals)
CYCLING:
Craig Ridgard – Men’s road race C1-3 (despite being involved in a crash, he finished in 28th position in a time of 2:07.36)
Goldy Fuchs – Men’s road race T1-2 (finished in 9th place with a time of 57.13)
EQUESTRIAN:
Phillipa Johnson Individual Freestyle Test (Dressage-finished 6th on Lord Louis with 71.300 points and was eliminated)
Athletes in action on Friday 16 September 2016
(All times listed below are for South Africa)
SWIMMING:
Heats:
3.43pm Alani Ferreira – 100m Backstroke S13
00.05am Alani Ferreira – 100m Backstroke S13 (potential finals)
01.24 Alani Ferreira – 100m Backstroke S13 (potential medal presentation)
ATHLETICS:
3.10pm Zanele Situ – Discus F55 (final) 3.44pm Ilse Hayes – 400m T13 (final)
4.40pm Ilse Hayes – 400m T13 (potential medal ceremony) 10.59pm Dyan Buis – 400m T38 (final)
11.06pm Zanele Situ – Discus F55 (potential medal ceremony) 11.30pm Mpumulelo Mhlongo Long Jump T44 (final)
11.47pm Dyan Buis – 400m T38 (potential medal ceremony)
11.55pm Hilton Langenhoven/Ndodomzi 200m T12 (potential final)
00.42am Hilton Langenhoven/Ndodomzi 200m T12 (potential medal ceremony)
01.51 Mpumulelo Mhlongo Long Jump T44 (potential medal ceremony)
CYCLING:
2.30pm Dane Wilson – Men’s road race C4-5 (final)
9.00pm Dane Wilson – Men’s road race C4-5 (potential medal presentation)
Source: Sascoc
