It was history in the making and world records being broken by South Africa's athletes participating in the Paralympic Games in Paris.
Team South Africa has collected four medals so far at the Paralympic games. Mpumelelo Mhlongo raced to gold in the Men’s 100m T44, with bronze medals from Louzanne Coetzee (Women’s T11 1500m), Nicolas Pieter du Preez (Men’s H1 Individual Time trial) and the wheelchair tennis duo of Donald Ramphadi and Lucas Sithole.
Mhlongo's jump of 7.12m set a new world record in the Men’s T44 long jump category.
Sithole and Ramphadi’s third place made them the first South Africans to win a medal in wheelchair tennis at the Paralympic Games.
They clinched a bronze medal match victory in the quad doubles, 6-2, 4-6, 10-8.
Sithole, 38, a quadriplegic from Newcastle, participated in the singles and doubles in wheelchair tennis.
Visually impaired swimmer Alani Ferreira set an African record of 4:55.95 in the S13 400m freestyle.
The Pietermaritzburg swimmer said: “I’m very happy, this is the race that I say ‘it’s my race’ because I do this one because I love it, not because I’m necessarily particularly very good at it. This is the one I do because I literally just love swimming and racing so I’m very happy to have gotten that time.”
Ferreira broke two more African records at the Paralympics in Paris on Thursday. She finished third in her morning heat of the SB12 100m breaststroke to set a new continental mark of 1:21.95 and in the final later that evening she lowered her new record to 1:21.36, but finished fifth.
“I went in trying my best and that’s exactly what I gave, so I’m happy with the time.”
Ferreira described herself as more of a back-end swimmer, who was quicker on the second 50m of the race but sometimes left herself too much work to do.
“It’s something we really tried to work on which is getting out faster, but it’s just something I need to work on some more when I get home,” she said.
The other South African in action at La Defense Arenain Paris on Thursday evening was Danika Vyncke, who reached her first Paralympic final after swimming 1:24.91 in her morning heat of the SB12 100m breaststroke.
The visually impaired 17-year-old also went quicker in the evening, finishing eighth in a time of 1:23.81.
“I’m happy with the time, it was a fun swim. I really just went out there and enjoyed it. It felt amazing. I mean, my first Paralympic final, it was definitely exciting. I’m super excited, this just makes me want to work harder,” said Vyncke.
Swimmer Christian Sadie finished fifth in the SM7 200m individual medley and set a new African record of 2:35.02. Sadie finished seventh in the S7 50m freestyle in 28.75 seconds – another African record. He’ll be back in action today in the S7 50m butterfly.
Vyncke, from Vryheid in northern KwaZulu-Natal, who made her debut at the Paralympic Games said she was just going out there to enjoy and gain experience and was not really bothered by the time, adding that a personal best time was always great.
“It has been an experience of a lifetime and the atmosphere is insane. Everyone is here to compete so it’s really competitive. I have learnt to deal with the pressure of having a crowd of 30 000. It’s incredible just having the freedom and independence in the village which has been amazing, as well as being surrounded by such talented athletes,” said Vyncke.
