South African Paralympic stars Natalie du Toit, Handri de Beer and Charles Bouwer showed just why they were part of the national team to the Paralympics in Athens last year, as the SA records kept crashing at the Nedbank Championships for Physically Disabled in Durban on Monday.
While the Dutch and British swimmers kept the officials busy rewriting the SA record books, Du Toit bettered the 100m breaststroke SA record to 1:29,99, while Pretoria-based De Beer and Northern Cape’s Bouwer set new SA best of 1:22,10 and 1:17,69 in the 100m breaststroke and 100m butterfly respectively.
SA Sports Association for the Physically Disabled President Koos Engelbrecht said that the presence of the Dutch and British representatives has allowed for SA records to be broken and much higher standards to be set.
”SA’s sports participants with disabilities will now have to train harder and aim higher, and with role models of the calibre of Du Toit, De Beer and Bouwer on the swimming scene, the future for sport for the physically disabled athletes looks to be a bright one,” said Engelbrecht. – Sapa