There were two African records in the pool but no medals for Team SA on Tuesday at the 2024 Paralympics. They remain on two medals heading into Wednesday, following Mpumelelo Mhlongo’s T44 100m gold and Louzanne Coetzee’s T11 1 500m silver. There were three sports represented by Team SA on the day – swimming, athletics and boccia.
Christian Sadie reached the final of the S7 100m backstroke and in the final he finished fifth in 1:13.03 after reacting best at the start. Gold and silver went to the Ukrainian duo of Yurii Shenhur (1:09.51) and Andrii Trusov (1:10.42). Both Kat Swanepoel and Nathan Hendricks swam to new African records.
“Super happy, I’m an IM swimmer and a fly swimmer so it’s not something we’ve been training for,” Sadie said. “But it went really well so I’m super happy. I didn’t know how close I was, but apparently, my coach said it was close so I’m really happy, it was a good day.”
Swanepoel said: “It was just an amazing experience to be in that arena and representing our country. Unfortunately I’m not through to the finals but am super-proud to have finished the race despite dislocating my shoulder in the middle of the race.”
ATHLETICS
Women’s 200m, T64 first round (10.36am): Tezna Abrahams ran a personal best 31.17 in finishing fifth in her heat, but not progressing to the evening final
Women’s 400m, T37 final: Sheryl James finished fourth in 1:06.88 and Liezel Gouws was fifth in 1:08.33. Gold went to Ukraine’s Nataliia Kobzar (1:00.92) who held off China’s Fenfen Jiang, the race favourite, who took silver in 1:01.88
BOCCIA
Mixed pairs, BC3 Pool D: Karabo Morapedi and Elanza Jordaan lost to Brazil 7-0
Mixed pairs, BC3 Pool D: Karabo Morapedi and Elanza Jordaan lost to Greece 10-0
SWIMMING
Men’s 100m backstroke, S7 heats: Christian Sadie finished 3rd in his heat in 1:14.82 and progressed to the evening final sixth fastest but only 0.45sec off third place.
Men’s 100m backstroke, S7 final: Christian Sadie went quicker than he had in the morning and his time of 1:13.03 saw him place fifth
Men’s 200m IM, SM13 heats: Nathan Hendricks finished 4th in his heat in 2:18.36, which qualified him eighth for the evening final
Men’s 200m IM, SM13 final: Nathan Hendricks finished seventh in an African record 2:17.15
Women’s 50m backstroke, S5 heats: Kat Swanepoel produced an African record 49.63sec but missed out on a place in the final
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