Oscar Pistorius began his bid to win three gold medals in the Beijing Paralympics, clocking the fastest time yesterday in the 100m heats.
The South African, who failed in an attempt to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, ran a personal-best time of 11.16 seconds in the sprint. The next best times went to three Americans: Jerome Singleton (11.48 seconds), Brian Frasure (11.49 seconds) and Marlon Shirley (11.77 seconds).
Pistorius will also run the 200m and 400m, hoping to better his performance four years ago in the Athens Paralympics where he won a gold and bronze.
PHOTO: AFP
The double amputee, known as the “Blade Runner” because of the prosthetic legs he races on, won a legal battle in May for the right to run in the Olympics. However, subsequently he failed to meet the qualifying time standard.
Forty-one medals were awarded yesterday, the second day of the Paralympics. China leads with 28 medals overall — eight gold. The US also has eight gold medals and 17 overall.
South African swimmer Natalie Du Toit won her second gold in two days, winning the 100m freestyle after taking the 100m butterfly on Sunday. She’s attempting to win five gold medals in Beijing.
The US took three of the 18 golds in swimming to lead that tally. The medals went to Jessica Long, Erin Popovich and Anna Eames.
The 10 gold medals yesterday in track and field were scattered around, with China taking two to top that tally. Cuba, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Latvia, Algeria, Denmark, Canada and the Netherlands each took a gold medal.
Medals awarded in other events included track cycling (5), equestrian (2), judo (4) and shooting (2).
One of the longest winning streaks in sports stayed in place as the Netherlands’ Esther Vergeer defeated Daniela Di Toro 6-2, 6-0 to extend her string to 345 consecutive victories in a first-round match in wheelchair tennis.
The 27-year-old Vergeer has won four gold medals in the last two Paralympic Games — in singles and doubles — and will look to repeat again in Beijing.
Di Toro is a former top-ranked player and the last to defeat Vergeer. That was five-and-a-half years ago.
“It was an important match and I was kind of nervous in the first couple of games,” Vergeer said. “A couple of years ago she was my biggest rival. The stadium is full and there are a lot of people watching, and that is also very different from what we are used to.”
Wasiu Yusuf’s first foray into Paralympic wheelchair tennis ended after less than an hour yesterday but, for his coach, simply having something to sit in on the Beijing court was an achievement for the Nigerian.
Various classes of disability make Paralympic competition a level playing field, but equipment, ranging from specially designed wheelchairs to prosthetic limbs costing thousands of dollars, also make a difference to whether athletes can compete.
“Nigeria is a Third World country,” Yusuf’s coach Frank Tarmena said. “Wheelchairs are very expensive in Africa. We can only get wheelchairs from Europe, from America and from Asia. So very few African countries play wheelchair tennis. If we have companies that produce wheelchairs ... it’ll be very important for wheelchair tennis. The wheelchair is the biggest challenge.”
The 19-year-old Yusuf, who lost 6-2, 6-1 to Sweden’s Stefan Olsson in the first round of the men’s singles, also faces other barriers his rivals in the developed world do not, Tarmena said.
“In Africa it’s like a taboo when you are disabled. But in the Western world, it’s different. That is why you don’t find so many disabled doing sports in Africa and you don’t find so many disabled Africans traveling round the world doing sports,” he said.
Tarmena, the Nigerian national wheelchair tennis coach, has worked with the International Tennis Federation to try and help develop the game in different parts of Africa.
“I started wheelchair tennis ... because these guys are like us. There is nothing different. The only difference is the disability,” he said.
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