The International Paralympic Committee’s World Swimming Championships finished just like they started, with Natalie du Toit winning a gold medal. The South African claimed her sixth gold this week, in the final event, the 5km open-water swim at the Hazelmere Dam.
What makes this feat all the more astonishing is that she finished third overall in the race, which included 36 males and 20 females.
Du Toit’s time of one hour, two minutes and 40 seconds was good enough to beat her greatest rival, perennial silver medallist Stephanie Dixon, by 4:12. Anna Garcia-Arcicollar picked up the bronze medal, 7:19 behind Du Toit.
”I tried to stay with the leading male; he started off without a cap so I didn’t think he was part of the race at first. I then tried to stay with the second guy the whole way but he pulled away on the second lap,” Du Toit explained after swimming two laps of 2,5km.
The 22-year-old was also very happy with the conditions, which were surprisingly benign. ”The water was very, very still, which was great. I’ve swum a few open-water races, but I’ve never had water this still.”
She added: ”My time was pretty good, so I’m happy.”
The men’s section was won by Sergei Punko in a time of one hour, 22 seconds. The Belarussian finished 1:41 ahead of Australian Michael Palfery and just 2:19 ahead of Du Toit. Portugal’s Emanuel Goncalves claimed the bronze medal in the men’s race in a time of 1:04:28.
Du Toit, who broke two of her world records this week, picked up gold medals in the 100m butterfly on Saturday, the 100m freestyle on Monday, the 200m individual medley on Tuesday, the 400m freestyle on Wednesday and the 50m freestyle on Thursday. All these races were swum in the S9 category, for swimmers with a single amputation.
South Africa picked up 10 medals at these championships.
Besides for Du Toit’s six golds, Tadgh Slattery won a silver medal in the men’s SB5 100m breaststroke, and Shareen Sapiro, Handri de Beer and young-up-and-coming sensation Charl Bouwer each won a bronze medal.
Sapiro produced this result in the women’s S10 100m backstroke, De Beer in the women’s S12 400m freestyle and Bouwer in the men’s S13 400m freestyle. At just 16, Bouwer also came fourth in the S13 100m backstroke.
Britain topped the medal table, while South Africa improved on their 19th place at the 2002 championships to finish 13th in the standings. — Sapa