Anika Pretorius, the daughter of Dr Cornu Pretorius and his wife, Ingrid, will participate in the final of the 100 m T13 event for visually impaired athletes. She obtained fifth place after achieving her personal best time of 12.33. The event was won by Adiaratou Iglesias Forneiro of Spain in a time of 11:96.
Pretorius, who turns 27 on Friday, 3 September, grew up in Carletonville and switched from gymnastics to athletics after being diagnosed with Stargardt disease in 2006, at the age of 13. Stargardt disease is an untreatable inherited disorder of the retina that typically causes vision loss during childhood or adolescence.
Although Pretorius initially competed in able-bodied events, she switched to Para athletics in 2011, at age 17, while attending Potchefstroom Gimnasium.
She made her inter- national debut at the London Paralympics in 2012 but unfortunately had to miss the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games due to a torn cartilage in one of her knees. Pretorius was plagued by various serious injuries that interfered with her athletics career during the past decade. This included a concussion and a fracture to her back.
“Without many miracles, she would not have been able to compete at the Paralympics. Due to another injury six weeks ago, she was only chosen for the national team at the last moment,” says her father.
Although Pretorius originally excelled in long jump and then moved to high jump, there was, unfortunately, no high jump event for her class at the Paralympics and she had to do the 100-metre instead.
“She faced extremely strong competition from other athletes in her class as several of them had moved into this class from other classes,” says her father. He thanked every-one in the community for their support.
Pretorius is currently a student at Stellenbosch University, where she is doing her PhD in Sports Science.
“Don’t be scared to take on challenges “above” your capabilities if it is some-thing you believe in. Yes, it is not going to come easy, but if you commit to it and stay true to yourself, you will have the resilience to persevere through tough times,” she was quoted in a publication of her university in December last year.
