The 2024 Paralympics will be sadly closing curtains today and Team South Africa will undoubtedly give themselves a pat on the back for putting up a good fight in Paris.
At the time of going to press, South Africa had five medals in the bag – two gold and three bronze.
T44 world record-holder and 100m Paralympian Mpumelelo Mhlongo went to the Paralympic Games as one of SA’s medal hopefuls and did live up to expectations.
Mhlongo did not only clinch gold in his 100m final last week Sunday but was the first Team SA medalist at the games.
“I didn’t execute the race perfectly and at 60m I told myself that I must wake up. But it’s a job done! We got the gold and hopefully, now the floodgates will open,” Mhlongo said after his race.
Indeed, the floodgates did open as Team SA delivered three more medals, with Louzanne Coetzee in the 1 500m, followed by a historic moment from wheelchair tennis duo Donald Ramphadi and Lucas Sithole, who won a bronze medal in the quad doubles bronze medal match against Leandro Pena and Ymanitu Silva 6-2 4-6 10-8 after a tense match tiebreak.
The bronze was South Africa’s first-ever Paralympic wheelchair tennis medal.
Pieter du Preez followed suit and added to South Africa’s medal tally when he scorched through the finish line in third place during the H1cycling final.
Despite other medal hopefuls Puseletso Mabote and Alani Ferreira not getting to the podium, the pair will be filled with pride, as they managed to get in the finals of their respective categories.
At just the age of 19, Mabote broke the African record in the long jump and then equalled the Games record in the T63 100m.
The lowlight of Team SA at the Games, was, however, the withdrawal of wheelchair tennis star Kgothatso “KG” Montjane.
The Three-time Grand Slam champion was forced to withdraw due to struggles with mental health after the tragic passing of her mother just a week after her historic victory at Wimbledon.
