Mpumelelo Mhlongo delivered a thrilling performance at the Paralympics on Saturday, finishing fourth in the 200m but ultimately securing the bronze medal, bringing Team South Africa’s total medal count to six, Cape {town} Etc reports.
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Mhlongo is a T44-classified athlete – a track athlete with movement affected at a low or moderate degree in one lower leg.
However, he competed in the more challenging T64 class (for athletes with the absence of one leg below the knee) 200m race and set a new T44 world record with a time of 22.62 seconds.
Initially finishing fourth, Mhlongo was promoted to third after Germany’s Felix Streng, who initially took second place, was disqualified for a lane infringement.
Mhlongo, who previously won the T44 100m title in Paris, moved up to the podium behind Sherman Guity Guity of Costa Rica, who won in 21.32 seconds, and Levi Vloet of the Netherlands, who took silver with 22.47 seconds.
In another event, Collen Mahlalela finished seventh in the men’s T47 400m, completing the race in 49.95 seconds.
Meanwhile, swimmer Christian Sadie came in fifth in a highly competitive S7 men’s 50m butterfly final with an African record time of 29.94 seconds, just behind Ukrainian Andrii Trusov (28.75), Carlos Zarate of Colombia (29.08), and Egor Efrosinin, competing as a neutral Russian athlete (29.69). American Evan Austin finished fourth in 29.89 seconds.
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On Friday night, Simone Kruger claimed the gold medal in the women’s F38 discus, winning by a narrow margin of 6 centimetres. The 19-year-old South African, who was favoured to win, kept her composure in a tight contest in front of a packed Paris crowd. Kruger, who has trained tirelessly for years – travelling every Sunday for two hours to and from Ruimsig with her father and coach, Andries – has now added the Paralympic gold medal to her list of achievements, which include being the world champion, world record holder, and Paralympic record holder. Her winning throw of 38.70 metres was 4.97 metres further than the gold-medal-winning throw in Tokyo three years earlier.
This year’s Paralympic F38 discus competition was the strongest ever, with a field of 14 competitors narrowed down to eight after three rounds. In fact, the gold-medal distance from the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics would have only ranked seventh in Paris, although the weather conditions were more favourable this time.
Kruger dedicated her victory to her late coach, Pierre Blignaut, and her grandfather, saying, ‘This gold is for my coach Pierre Blignaut who passed last December. Also for my grandfather who we also lost. There’s so many people who have stood with me on my journey, and this just feels amazing.’
Wrapped in the South African flag, she expressed her gratitude for the support she received, adding, ‘I wouldn’t have been able to do this without support from home. My mum and my sister made their first overseas trip to see me compete. It made me feel so much more relaxed knowing they were here. It was amazing to have them in the stadium.’ Kruger moved up from third place after her first throw to second after the second round, with her third attempt securing the gold.
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Picture: Roger Sedres / Gallo Images