Mpumelelo Mhlongo triumphs with a 200m bronze

Mpumelelo Mhlongo ran a 200m world record in his T44 category at the Stade de France last night to claim bronze in dramatic fashion in the T64 category at the Paralympics.

The 100m champion had initially finished fourth, but was upgraded to the podium after second-placed German Felix Streng was disqualified for a lane infringement.

Mhlongo got away quickly, but his rivals caught him coming out of the bend and Sherman Guity Guity of Costa Rico won in 21.32sec, ahead of Streng (21.86) and Levi Vloet of the Netherlands (22.47).

The 30-year-old South African was next across the line in 22.62, which in the end proved enough to claim Team South Africa’s sixth medal of the showpiece. 

Earlier in the evening swimmer Christian Sadie had to settle for fifth spot in a tight S7 men’s 50m butterfly final, touching in a 29.94 African record behind Ukrainian Andrii Trusov (28.75), Carlos Zarate of Colombia (29.08) and neutral Russian Egor Efrosinin (29.69). American Evan Austin was fourth (29.89).

This is the first Paralympics in 13 editions where South Africa has not made a podium in the pool.

Overall the team was running out of chances to top the seven medals won in Tokyo, the country’s lowest haul to date.

Collen Mahlalela was due to compete in the men’s T47 400m later last night and Louzanne Coetzee, the blind runner who claimed bronze in the women’s 1,500m T11 earlier in the week, was scheduled to compete in the women’s marathon today.

When Simone Kruger won the team’s second gold of the showpiece in the women’s F38 discus with a 38.70m Paralympic record, the country’s tally rose to five.

With just two days of competition remaining the country’s disabled stars had never stood so close to the close of the competition and still short of the medal haul of their Olympic counterparts, who landed six gongs in Paris. 

The Paralympians have traditionally always outperformed the Olympians — 7-3 at Tokyo 2020, 17-10 at Rio 2016, 29-6 at London 2012, 30-1 at Beijing 2008, 35-6 at Athens 2004, 38-5 at Sydney 2000, 28-5 at Atlanta 1996 and 8-2 at Barcelona 1992.

That gap will shrink markedly in 2024, and that’s not the only concern.

Another problem is the lack of gold medals. Before Paris the lowest golden haul had been four, achieved twice — three years ago and in Barcelona.

Admittedly the categorisations have not suited Team South Africa, or else Mhlongo, who broke the long-jump world record without reaching the podium, might have won three gold medals.

But that is not the only reason. Administrators will need to do some soul-searching to find out what is going on in local disabled sport. South Africa’s best haul was 41 medals in 1972, followed by 38 medals in 2000.