Malcolm Pringle followed up his 800m golden world record with a silver medal in the 400m and seasoned swimmer Scott Field bowed out with three silvers and a bronze in the 50m freestyle when Athens Paralympic action came to an end on Monday night.
Pringle, who dedicated his 800m 1:58,90 gold medal to his deceased best friend, Paralympic shot put athlete Gert van der Merwe, challenged world record-holder Tim Sullivan of Australia all the way for the 400m title.
But the lively athlete conceded by the slightest of margins in a thrilling race with a season’s best 51,51sec to the Australian’s 51,41.
Field, competing in his last Paralympics because he needs to settle down working as a computer programmer in Cape Town, won three silvers in the 100 butterfly (1:01,75), 400m freestyle (4:30,19) and 100m freestyle 55,36sec. He would have loved a golden finish in Monday night’s 50m freestyle final, but had to settle for
bronze in 25,48sec.
”That’s my last race ever, but my best time ever,” said Field after conceding to Russia’s Andrey Strokin (24,88) and Taiganidis Charalampos (24,97). ”I’m ecstatic about that. I was between the two fastest guys and used them to pace myself. As much as you can, you have to pace yourself in a 50m. I’m very happy to end on a
high.”
Pringle was just as happy with his silver. ”I ran the perfect race out there,” said Pringle afterwards. ”He (Sullivan) beat me by a bit. I thought I had it. But I’m very tired emotionally, mentally and physically because I put everything into that 800 for Gert. I’m really happy to get another medal at these Games.”
Pringles’ silver, with bronze medals won by Ilse Hayes and Adriaan Nel in cycling
brought South Africa’s medal count to 15 gold, 13 silver and seven bronze.
Hayes said she was pleased with her 400m bronze in 1:00,13 behind Semenova Olga of Russia who won gold in 57,79 and Anthi Karagianni (Greece) 1:00,13.
”I had a problem with training because I was out for eight weeks with a hamstring injury.”
Nel, the world road champion who crashed out of the road race last week, showed his class with a bronze medal in the 5km tricycle time trial for cerebral palsy riders on Monday. Nel, who rides for Bellville CC in the Cape, finished third as a DV2 rider in 10min 10,58sec behind Mark le Flohic (also DV2) of Australia who rode 10:06,84. Dirk Boon of Belgium, who is a DV1 rider because his disability is less severe, won gold in 8:37,97. The reason for the disability divisions being mixed is that there are not enough medals to go around.
”It’s a good feeling to win a medal,” said Nel, whose hobbies are doing crosswords and puzzles. ”Especially after crashing in the road race.”
Nel damaged his rear stabiliser wheel during the 21km road race last week. He’d entered among the favourites after winning the 2002 world championship title over 17km.
Arm-amputee, David Roos, finished fifth in the high jump at the Olympic Stadium, while in the shot-put final, cerebral palsy athletes Nicholas Newman and Duane Strydom finished sixth and seventh respectively.
Nel’s bronze brought South Africa’s medal count to 15 gold, 12 silver and seven bronze. – Sapa