Disabled athlete goes from strength to strength
Disability as a result of a car accident doesn't hold back Greenhills athlete. Update on his progress here:
Dewalt Pretorius, 33, Randfontein’s prodigy shot put champion, has tried his hand at discus and got the gold.
Dewalt once again took part in the Nedbank National Disability Championships from 31 March to 4 April. In discus he took the gold after throwing 27,5 metres and for shot put he took the bronze after throwing 10,58 metres. He missed the shot put silver medal by two centimetres.
Dewalt is disabled as a result of a car accident a few years ago, which caused him to fall into a coma. He explained that while he was in the coma, his weight dropped to approximately 40kg. While recovering from the coma, he couldn’t walk, talk, or do anything for himself. When he started healing and was able to walk and control his movements again, he started practising shot put.
After securing gold in shot put, he decided to try his hand at both discus and javelin to see how far he could push himself. While he has not started practising javelin yet, he has managed to secure a gold medal just a year after picking up the discus for the first time, showing his sporting prowess.
His shot put medal may have been downgraded to a bronze but it was enough to secure him a spot in the World Qualifying Standards for the World Disability Championships.
His two coaches, Robbie and Hermien van Coller said it is an honour and a privilege to be part of such a great success story. The duo said Dewalt is dedicated and works very hard but in the end, they said, all honour and glory goes to God.
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