Africa records, but no medals for Team SA at Paralympics

Team South Africa’s Sheryl James and Liezel Gouws finished fourth and fifth as they missed out on the medals in the women’s 400m – T37 final at the Paris Paralympics on Tuesday.

James, the bronze medal winner from the Tokyo games started well, but couldn’t keep up with the front three.

Ukraine’s Natalia Kobzar claimed the gold medal, while Tokyo champion Fenfen Jiang of China could only win the silver this time. Viktoriia Slanova, racing under the Neutral Paralympic flag, rounded up the top three.

In the pool, Nathan Hendricks swam an African record time of 2:17.15 as he finished seventh in the men’s 200m individual medley – SM13 final.

The highlight of the final was Ihar Boki of Belarus, swimming under the Neutral Paralympic Athlete flag, winning the race in a world record time of 2:02.03 to become the most successful male paralympic athlete of all time.

Team SA at Paralympics: Kat Swanepoel and Nathan Hendricks set African records

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Hendricks reached the final after placing second in heat 2 earlier on Tuesday.

South Africa’s Christian Sadie missed out on a medal when he finished fifth in the men’s 100m backstroke S7 final in a time of 1:13.03.

Earlier on Tuesday, Sadie had qualified for the final by placing third in heat 1.

Kat Swanepoel was eliminated in the heats of her women’s 50m backstroke S5 after finishing in sixth place.

Swanepoel can however be proud of her time of 49.63, which was confirmed to be the new African record for the event.

On the track, Tezna Abrahams did not advance to the next round of the women’s 200m T64 after placing fifth in heat two. Abrahams elimination came after she had clocked a personal best time of 31.17.

WRAP: Team SA’s Sheryl James, Liezel Gouws miss out on medals in women’s 400m - T37 final

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— IOL Sport (@IOLsport) September 3, 2024

In the preliminary round Pool D of the Boccia mixed pairs BC3, the South African duo of Karabo Morapedi and and Elanza Jordaan were beaten by 7-0 by Brazil’s Evelyn Oliveira and Mateus Carvalho.

Morapedi and Jordaan then followed that up with another heavy loss in their second contest, going down 10-0 to the Greek pair of Grigorios Polychronidis and Anna Ntenta.