Anruné Liebenberg won a 400-metre track silver on Wednesday night to take Team South Africa’s medal tally to nine at the Paralympics.
Running in the T45-46-47 classification (upper limb impairment) she repeated her feat from the last Paralympics in London four years ago.
Sure the time may have been a full 2.03sec slower than London as she slowed drastically in the final straight but the Stellenbosch sprinter has extenuating circumstances… well, actually two of them!
Not once, but twice has she gone under the knife this year for knee operations and five months ago she didn’t even know if there was a place reserved for her in Rio. Never has the saying ‘every cloud has a silver lining’ been so apt.
‘Phew, from November last year’s it’s been tough and just being here is actually a miracle. I really wanted to go out and get gold and a PB [Personal best] – that was most precious thing I wanted.
‘I went really hard in first 200 and then that last 100m I just didn’t have that extra bit of oomph, but I’m still proud of myself for having represented my country and already looking forward to the 200m on Thursday and Friday.
In the half-lapper she brought bronze back from London with a time of 25.55.
‘I’m truly just happy to be back on my feet… all that hard work and patience has paid off and and having my boyfriend [Stefan Weyers] here was very special too.’
As expected it was China’s Lu Li, the fastest athlete into the final, who took gold in a time of 58.09sec as she hauled in a leg-weary Liebenberg who clocked 58.88, almost two seconds ahead of Japan’s bronze medallist Sae Tsuji (1:00.62).
Despite Liebenberg’s medal, South Africa, who now have three gold, three silver and three bronze medals, have still slipped further down the medals table, from 23rd to 27th.
In the only other athletics finals involving South Africa, Zandile Nhlapo ended eighth in the F34 shot put with a 5.63m effort.
Elsewhere, Tennis ace Lucas Sithole was just one game away from earning Team South Africa a bronze.
Playing arch-rival David Wagner in the third/fourth place tie, Sithole was out of the blocks quickly, winning the first set 6-1 in just 26 minutes but the roles were reversed as Wagner won the second 6-2 in six minutes more action than the first stanza. The third set saw Sithole 5-1 up and seemingly with that medal in his pocket but, Wagner who has dominated their previous meetings to the tune of 23-8, dug deep to clinch the final 50min set 7-5.
On to road cycling’s first action of the Games and the first time trial of the day saw Craig Ridgard in C2 action and he ended 11th of 15 finishers. His time of 30min 19.03sec put him 2:36 behind gold medal winner Tristen Chernove of Canada. Roxy Burns was scheduled to be next off in the C1-3 final (her fourth and final race) but was forced to withdraw on the race-day morning.
Then it was on to the H5 men’s event where Ernst van Dyk was out to go close to his previous best Paralympic TT finish of fourth in Beijing back in 2008. He went close with a fifth spot in 29:26.31 as Alessandro Zanardi repeated his London win of four years ago winning in 28:36.81. On this occasion, on a pancake flat course and with the 41deg Celsius temperatures probably hot enough to back pancakes all day, Van Dyk just didn’t have it after 20 kilometres of all-out racing in an event which is not his favourite. That will come in Sunday’s road race, also on a flat course.
Team SA in action on Thursday, 15 September
(SA times)
AQUATICS:
Heats:
3.52pm Henri Herbst – 100m Freestyle S11
00.12am Henri Herbst – 100m Freestyle S11 (finals)
ATHLETICS:
Finals:
3.45pm Reinhardt Hamman Javelin F38 (final)
Heats:
4.45pm Charl du Toit 400m T37 (heats)
5.43pm Louzanne Coetzee 1500m T11 (heats)
10.58pm Chenelle van Zyl Shot Put F35 (final)
11.10pm Ndodomzi Jonathan Ntutu – 100m T12 (final)
11.15pm Dyan Buis – Long Jump T38 (final)
11.17pm Ntando Mahlangu – 100m T42 (final)
11.33pm Anrune Liebenberg – 200m T47 (heats)
CYCLING:
Finals:
2.30pm Ernst van Dyk – Men’s road race H5 (final)
5.20pm Justine Asher – Women’s road race H2-4 (final)
