Simone Kruger is only 19 but she arrived in the French capital as the world champion and the world record holder in the F38 discus. All that was missing on her ever-growing CV was Paralympic gold and a Paralymoic record. Tick. Tick. She achieved both at the Stade de France in Paris on Friday night.
This is her second Paralympics and she’s already a veteran before turning 20. She finished fifth in the F38 discus final at Tokyo 2020 when she produced an effort of 31.51m but since then her career has been on an upward trajectory.
For the past two years she has has won the world title, with the distance stretching out to 38.82m in Kobe in May. That was also a world record for the classification and the teenager landed in Paris as gold medal favourite.
Kruger didn’t disappoint, with a best throw of 38.70m, her third, being enough to take the gold medal, the second of Team SA’s campaign at these Paralympics and their fifth medal overall, with the Games concluding on Sunday. And with it came a new Games record.
She has been with her father and coach Andries – also an enthusiastic photographer – in the days leading up to the most important moment of her career so far and she has only added to her reputation as one of the stars of the sport.
For the past 10 years she has been travelling every Sunday an hour by car to Ruimsig and another hour back home with her dad and the journey to Paralympic gold has taken 12 years.
Kruger had opened with a Paralympic record of 37.69m, which was 4.51m further than the previous mark set at Tokyo 2020 by Rosa Castro of Mexico. Kruger’s first attempt was however, short of the world record 38.82m she had set at the World Championships in May.
However, there was some stiff competition. After that opening round the South African was lying in the bronze medal position, with China’s Yingli Li achieving a distance of 38.46m, which was a personal best and Colombian Xiomara Hernandez also breaking the old Paralympic record with 38.27m.
Kruger knew she needed to go bigger. And she did, with a second effort of 38.35m regaining the new Paralympic mark and back into silver, 11cm behind the gold medal position of Li. Her third mark was even better, 38.70m. Now only 12cm off her world record but more importantly for now, into the gold medal slot.
Her first three throws had got progressively better, 1.01m better in fact from that opening attempt to her third. Her fourth throw was 37.59m. Two throw left, still leading. Her penultimate effort landed just wide of the lines. One throw left. If it wasn’t bettered by any of her seven remaining rivals she would be crowned gold medallist regardless of her remaining attempt.
One by one they fell by the wayside and when Li came up 6cm short on her last effort Kruger was home.
Without doubt, this was the strongest Paralympic F38 discus field ever, a field of 14 whittled down to eight after three of the six throws. Put it this way: Gold at Tokyo 2020 would only have earned seventh space in Paris, although having said that, weather conditions were better here than they were then.
“This gold is for my coach Pierre Blignaut who passed last December. Also for my grandfather (dad’s father) who we also lost. There’s so many people who have stood with me on my journey, and this just feels amazing,” Kruger said, draped in the South African flag.
“There’s been a lot of prayer and I’ve been told just do my best, and God will do the rest. And I really believe that this was already God’s plan. The whole situation here, it was already planned out before I even started.
“So I just want to thank every single one that’s been behind me, and every single athlete that’s actually come to watch and all the other supporters who came to watch. It was just an amazing experience. 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 will be a great evening with them.
“It made me feel so much more relaxed (knowing they were here) because I knew if my mum and sister were sat at home they would have to wait for the results. Mum gets stressed a lot. So it was amazing to have them in the stadium."
Being third after round one didn't bother Kruger.
“I loved it! The closer the competition, the more I work on adrenaline and the more I have to know I have to do better. So it’s it’s in my head that I have to tell myself, Ok, now you can do better. Now you have to do better. So I think it was just an amazing thing for me to actually be in such a close competition, because all these three could have won the gold medal.
“In training we have a points system, so every single time you throw further, you get more points and then you get a reward and you see how much points you have at the end.
“That system made it easier to do this because I had to force myself to throw further. But also, I think just the atmosphere, the crowd, everything around me that’s happened just made this possible.”
Comments