Pretoria schoolboy Oscar Pistorius sprinted to a sensational world record in the Athens Paralympic 200m final at the Olympic Stadium on Tuesday night, but Natalie du Toit faltered in her gold-medal run with a fourth-place finish in the 100m breaststroke at the Aquatic Centre.
On a night of surprises in athletics, Hilton Langenhoven (visually impaired) added a long-jump silver with a career-best 7,03m to Ernst van Dyk’s 1 500m wheelchair silver and the javelin bronze by Bev Mashinini in the morning.
Then Teboho Mokgalagadi (cerebral palsy) spearheaded the 100m field into Wednesday’s finals with a world-record 13,07 seconds in his first-ever international competition.
Pistorius, the only double leg amputee in the field, was described as a sprinting phenomenon by Brian Frasure, the American whose world record the 17-year-old broke when he flew across the line in 21,97 seconds.
At the pool, Du Toit — with the 100m butterfly in a world-record time and the 100m freestyle in Paralympic record gold behind her — said from early on that as a one-leg amputee, breaststroke is not her strongest stroke.
She finished fourth in 1:30,17 with world-record holder Sisse Egeborg of Denmark claiming gold in 1:23,85.
”I knew I wouldn’t do well in the breaststroke,” she said. ”It was good training for my next race.”
The Cape Town swimmer gets a well-earned rest from her gruelling campaign on Wednesday before her assault on the 200m individual medley on Thursday.
Pistorius ‘feels fantastic’
But the night belonged to Pistorius, whose world record was the high point at the Olympic Stadium.
”I feel fantastic,” said Pistorius, who only left playing schoolboy rugby to take up athletics in January. ”I’m really very tired now from all this heavy concentration. I just want to get back to my room and rest up for the 100m now.”
”That was absolutely amazing,” said Frasure, who dominated single leg amputee sprinting for 11 years. ”Oscar is a phenomenal athlete. There are not many able-bodied athletes who can break 22 seconds. That was good for a sub-11-second 100m.”
Pistorius visited Frasure at his home in North Carolina in July, where the former world-record holder made the racing prosthetics that the youngster wore to break the American’s world mark of 22,71 seconds on Tuesday night.
”Now it’s going to be a thrill to sit in the stands and watch this young man fly. He’s going to get faster and faster. He’s phenomenal. And the prosthesis I made for him did great work. So it’s a bittersweet defeat for me,” said the American, who finished third in 22,83 seconds behind Marlon Shirley who took the silver in 22,67 seconds.
Pistorius was on a huge high afterwards, especially after his nerve-racking qualifier on Monday when he fell forward on to his knees and hands as the gun went off. He showed incredible grit to get up and chase the field, then amazing speed to come from behind and overhaul the entire field of single leg amputee sprinters for a double-amputee world record.
The Pretoria Boys’ High learner, whose legs were amputated below his knees because he was born with no shin bones, got off to a superb start and surged like a thoroughbred racehorse to the front. Then, for one heart-stopping moment, he staggered about 10m from the line.
”I lost my rhythm there,” he said. ”But I held out to break that 22 seconds. That’s a fantastic feeling.”
Pistorius, who is coached by Ampie Louw, poured ice water on his upper legs before the start — a practice that would be frowned upon among able-bodied athletes who go into sprint action with muscles as hot as possible.
”The cold water sorts the nerves out in my muscles,” he said. ”Kind of cements them in.”
‘Hot Stuff’
Langenhoven, after a disastrous 100m heat in between his first and second jump, took the field by surprise with his second jump at 7,03m.
”My best before that was 6,55m,” said the Somerset West athlete whose red-and-black-striped haircut prompted his teammates to name him ”Little Devil”. After his jump, they were calling him ”Hot Stuff”.
”I don’t know where it came from, but I told my mates this morning I was going to jump 7m, and here I did it.”
Indeed, it took a world-record 7,25m by Oleg Ponyurein (Azerbaijan) to beat him.
Van Dyk in top form
In the morning session, Van Dyk was cut off from a certain gold medal by Mexico’s Saul Mendoza in the 1 500m final.
Van Dyk controlled the pace from the gun, but with 200m to go the Mexican came through on the outside and cut the South African off, forcing his left wheel off the ground.
Van Dyk had to take evasive action to prevent his lightweight rail from going over, which lost him precious ground. The manner in which he held off the charge and gained ground on Mendoza down the main straight for the silver in 3:05,29 to the Mexican’s 3:04,88 spoke volumes for Van Dyk’s form at these Paralympics.
Mashinini satisfied
Mashinini, whose disability is cerebral palsy, threw the javelin 21,94m with her fifth effort for the bronze.
”I’m very satisfied with my performance,” she said. ”I knew that my fifth throw was a good one, because my shoulder was very sore.”
Pistorius’s gold, Langenhoven’s silver and the two medals on Tuesday morning brought South Africa’s medal tally to five gold — Natalie du Toit (two), Fanie Lombaard, Malcolm Pringle and Pistorius; five silver — Scott Field (two), Van Dyk, Nathan Meyer and Langenhoven; and one bronze (Mashinini).
In other results, Jane Mandean and Chenelle van Zyl were seventh and eighth in the javelin, Vonnie Kohne sixth in pistol shoot, Jonathon Ntutu sixth in long jump, Susan van Staden 10th in the cycling 1 000m time trial, Annah Mooketsi fourth in 52kg weightlifting, Moekie Grobbelaar fifth in 56kg weightlifting, Irvine de Kock fifth in 200m, Handri de Beer fifth in 100m butterfly and Krige Schabort eighth in the 5 000m wheelchair event. — Sapa