Rio de Janeiro - With 30m to go of her 400m final, Anrune Liebenberg looked to have South Africa’s fourth gold medal sewn up. But with the line begging, her body reminded her she had to pay the tax for what she had put it through over the previous 370m, and she slowed dramatically to be passed by China’s Lu Li for the win.
Her silver was South Africa’s ninth medal of the Games, and a repeat of her achievement in London, but just to get to Rio has been a struggle for the girl born with a short left arm. She has had two knee operations, the last in May. Her fitness has suffered as a result, and she showed the effort afterwards as she stood pale and shaky in the Olympic Stadium.
“I wanted to go out and run from the start to the end,” said Liebenberg. “The last little bit was a bit tough when I didn’t have the energy, but I’m still proud of going out there and giving everything I have. I’m a bit far bit behind my PB. I felt very powerful and felt I had enough training to come out here and run a PB.
“I had quite a rough year up to now. I had two knee ops. My last knee op was on May 13, so post-op, just to be able to run again is a blessing. The first one was cartilage removal in November after the world championships. Just when I got back training fully I hurt my right knee again. I had a bucket handle tear so they removed the meniscus, 60 percent of it so I only have 40 percent. So just being here is a miracle.”
Lucas Sithole’s loss in the bronze medal match will sit heavy with him for some time. At 5-2 up in the third set, he looked to be on track. He missed a straight forehand on match point that would have sealed it for him, hitting the net. David Wagner, the American who has now won seven Paralympic medals and plays with his racquet strapped to his hand, never let go of that let-off.
“I gave it all I have and he just played good in some of the points,” said Sithole. “I kept missing the balls at the end of the match. I was just missing the balls, but that’s how I play. I don’t roll the balls, I just hit the balls, so tough luck, I missed them.”
His coach, Holger Losch said Sithole had stopped “playing his game”. Sithole had been sublime at times. His backhand was on song and his lobs were pin-point accurate as he raced to a 5-1 lead in the third set after winning the first 6-1 and losing the second 2-6. He may have believed the game was won and was waiting for it to happen, but he believed too soon, and in a rush, the match and the bronze medal were gone.
Ernst Viljoen will start the second-last leg of his farewell to the Olympics today in the 60km cycle road race at the Pontal circuit. He had desperately wanted a medal in yesterday’s 20km time trial, but it was not to be as the wind slowed him down.
“I’m a big guy, the wind is not my friend,” said Van Dyk, who was fifth for the second time, following his fifth in London and fourth in Beijing. Former Formula 1 driver Alessandro Zanardi won, with Stuart Tripp of Australia in second and Oscar Sanchez of the US third.
“I was a bit surprised at Stuart Tripp. It’s the first time he has done this well. He rode a really good time trial, only two seconds behind Zanardi, who has all the technology in the world behind him, so I’m really impressed with that,” said Van Dyk.
“I got a silver in London in the road race (behind Zanardi), so I’m looking forward to getting a good result there. And on the last day is the (wheelchair) marathon, so we will have to see what we can do there.”
Ntando Mahlangu and Johnathan Ntutu, the amputee and the blind man, will run in their respective 100m heats tomorrow night. Ntutu qualified second-fastest and is a solid medal chance, but the 100m may be too short for Mahlangu to get up to speed. Reinhardt Hamman, the 2015 world champion, may add to South Africa’s medal haul today.
IOL