Dutch wheelchair tennis ace Esther Vergeer on Friday stretched her remarkable unbeaten run to 470 matches as she struck Paralympic gold again, while South Africa’s Natalie du Toit swam her final race.
Ireland’s Jason Smyth meanwhile proved himself as the fastest Paralympian in history by defending his 100m and 200m double from Beijing, while Du Toit’s teammate Oscar Pistorius sought to salvage his Games after two shock defeats.
The penultimate full day of competition in London saw a number of sports reach their conclusion, with Vergeer’s title never destined for anyone else, given her remarkable winning streak in singles that stretches back to 2003.
Photo: AFP
“I know the day I will lose will come, but I don’t know when,” the 31-year-old said after beating compatriot Aniek van Koot 6-0, 6-3 on the blue hardcourts of Eton Manor to take the title for the fourth time in a row. “I like the game, so I will continue playing, but for how long I have no clue.”
In the Olympic Stadium, Irish sprinter Smyth showed his undisputed class by breaking his own T13 200m world record for visually impaired athletes to win in 21.05 seconds, less than a week after winning the 100m in another world best time.
The 25-year-old, who has the genetic condition Stargardt’s disease, won the same double in Beijing four years ago, while Russia-born US wheelchair racer Tatyana McFadden took her third gold of the Games in the T54 1,500m.
Both victories came before Pistorius eased through to yesterday’s final of the T44 400m for single and double below-the-knee amputees, which as the only athlete in the field who has run under 50 seconds, he was expected to win.
Predictions of a Pistorius victory in the sprints have gone awry in London after he lost his 100m and 200m titles in a clear sign of a shift in power away from the most recognizable face in disabled sport.
The new 100m champion, Britain’s Jonnie Peacock, said the fact that all eight finalists on Thursday ran under 12 seconds demonstrated the improvements other athletes had made in the sport since Beijing.
“It’s testament to Paralympic sport and this class as a whole,” the 19-year-old world record holder said, adding that Pistorius could no longer expect to dominate amputee sprinting over a number of events.
“If Oscar goes and trains for the 400, when it comes to the 100 and 200 it’s going to be harder for him to win. He’s not going to have it his way like he used to,” he added.
At the pool, 13-time Paralympic gold medalist Du Toit broke down in tears after winning silver in the S9 100m freestyle behind Australia’s Ellie Cole.
“It’s all over,” said the 28-year-old Du Toit, who was a promising non-disabled swimmer until 2001 when she had her left leg amputated below the knee after a scooter accident.
“I walk away with absolutely no regrets. I look back and I think I gave everything. No matter what emotions you go through I gave everything in the pool, everything as a person and I’m satisfied,” she said.
The Cape Town swimmer’s story of courage in the face of a major setback has inspired millions.
Former US Navy lieutenant Brad Snyder is doing likewise, as he won the men’s S11 400m freestyle gold for blind and visually impaired swimmers — exactly a year to the day since he was blinded on the battlefields of Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Jacqueline Freney won her eighth gold of the Games as Australia’s women won the 4x100m medley 34 points relay; Brazil’s Daniel Dias and Matthew Cowdrey of Australia both claimed their fifth golds.
In cycling, more road medals were decided at the Brands Hatch motor racing circuit in southeast England, with another gold for former Formula One and Indy car driver Alessandro Zanardi.
Zanardi, 45, who had both legs amputated after a horror smash in 2001, took the men’s H4 time-trial over 16 kilometres on Wednesday and followed it up on Friday by taking the 64km road race in a thrilling sprint finish.
Elsewhere, Japan beat China 1-0 in the women’s goalball final, while Finland took men’s gold with an 8-1 victory over Brazil.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier