Team SA returning home with six Paralympic medals

South Africa’s campaign fizzled to a relatively tame close in Paris on Sunday, as the national team concluded the Paralympic Games with a total of six medals in the bag.

It was a tough edition of the Games for the SA squad, who will return home with the nation’s lowest medal haul since readmission in 1992.

The 31-member team earned two gold and four bronze to finish 45th in the final medals table, with China taking top spot after raking in 219 medals (including 94 gold).

Mhlongo leads SA charge

Mpumelelo Mhlongo was the best of the South African contingent, securing two medals on the track. The 30-year-old sprinter won gold in the T44 100m final and grabbed bronze in the T64 200 event.

Mhlongo, a two-time world champion, dashed across the line in 11.12 seconds in the 100m sprint and took third position in the T64 200m final in 22.62, breaking the T44 world record.

In the T64 long jump, Mhlongo set another world record of 7.12m in the T44 classification, finishing fifth in the T64 final.

Junior athlete Simone Kruger was Team SA’s only other gold medallist in the French capital, winning the women’s F38 discus throw.

In a closely contested final, 19-year-old world champion Kruger triumphed by just six centimetres with a third-round throw of 38.70 metres, setting a new Paralympic record.

Visually impaired distance runner Louzanne Coetzee earned her third career medal at the Paralympics by snatching bronze in the T11 1500m final in 4:35.49, breaking her own national record.

Coetzee went on to finish seventh in the T12 marathon in 3:25:53 on Sunday, closing the SA squad’s campaign at the Paris Games.

Other sports

Earlier at the showpiece, quadriplegic handcyclist Pieter du Preez claimed bronze in the men’s H1 time trial.

Du Preez, who won gold at the Tokyo Games three years ago, completed the 14.2km course in the French capital in 36:07.05 to grab third place.

On the wheelchair tennis court, Donald Ramphadi and Lucas Sithole dug deep in a tightly contested battle to secure bronze by winning their quad doubles playoff.

Ramphadi and Sithole, who are both former Grand Slam champions, combined well to clinch a 6-2 4-6 [10-8] victory over the Brazilian pairing of Leandro Pena and Ymanitu Silva.

It was the first time the SA team finished outside the top 40 in the medals table, with the squad claiming the fewest medals in South Africa’s 60-year history at the Paralympic Games.