Olympic Stadium, Rio de Janeiro - Just four years after he first learnt how to walk, 14-year-old Ntando Mahlangu stood on a podium to receive his first Paralympic medal. He won silver in the 200m for above-the-knee amputees behind the defending champion, Richard Whitehead, of Great Britain. Whitehead milked the applause, but the world had seen a future champion in the making from the land of the south.
First to Mahlangu’s run. His start was sluggish, he was behind coming around the bend, but once he had hit the straight and his awkward sideways swing from the hips had become a pounding of blades, he came within a breath of winning and almost a second ahead of Britain’s David Henson in third. His time was 23.77 seconds; Whitehead 23.39 and Henson 24.74. Mahlangu set a new African record. Whitehead is 40. Mahlangu is just 14. His will be a name to be cheered at Paralympics for years to come.
“I love to run,” said Mahlangu after the race. It is his favourite saying. He bounces and bounds. Four years ago he took the decision to amputate his legs as he had spent all of his mobile life in a wheelchair. His parents took some convincing, but it granted freedom to the then 10-year-old. When the London Paralympics were on TV and the other South African amputees were stars on the big stage, he was learning how to walk. Two weeks later and he could run on his feet.
“I knew that once I got into my stride that I would be okay,” said Mahlangu. “I thought it could do well. It’s not my preferred distance (he regards himself as a 400m specialist), but I showed that I can run fast over 200m as well as 400m.”
There is no 400m class for the T42 at the Paralympics, but he will take part in the 100m later this week. His silver medal brought South Africa’s total to six and lifted them to 15th in the table.
A glut of medals had come earlier in the day, a rush at around 11am begun by Charl du Toit with his gold in the 100m for the cerebral palsied, and followed by Fanie van der Merwe all of 0.11 of a second later with bronze in the same event. Van der Merwe, as he did in London when he claimed he dived for the line and lost skin, fell after the finish line and burnt the skin of his palm and sustained cuts on his legs.
He laughed about it later in what would be his final 100m Paralympics race at the age of 30. The 23-year old Charl du Toit could have taken another step on to a period of dominance in this event. To think that four years ago he was a middle distance runner and took up the sprint because the International Paralympic Committee took it off the schedule for Rio. Ilse Hayes added to the medal haul with a silver in the 100m for the visually impaired, just a few minutes after her teammates had run. It was a good 10 minutes for South Africa in the morning sun.
It was a morning for the smile of Du Toit, who walks around bathed in the eternal sunshine of happiness. His smile has hidden grief since he came to Rio, mourning his uncle Johan, who passed away two weeks back after being shot in a house robbery.
“My dad always taught me the key to success is to enjoy what you do and you'll never work a day in your life. That’s why I smile. I love athletics, I love doing this. My uncle passed away two weeks ago and I promised him I'd give him a smile,” said Du Toit.
“With all the trauma with my uncle being shot, it played a huge role. I’m so thankful that I could dedicate this gold medal to him. He was a big sports fan and my dad was a big sports fan and I knew what I had to do to give glory to God and to make my uncle proud. I knew what the job was,” said Du Toit, whose 11.45 was just shy of the world record of 11.42 he had set the day before.
Van der Merwe, who was champion in London and Beijing, did not give up his title without a fight with Egypt’s Mostafa Fathalla Mohamed. Both were shown to have run 11.54secs, but the timers found he was just out by a few thousands of a second.
Hayes managed a season-best 11.91, but Ukrainian Lielia Adzhametova is in the same sort of form as Du Toit, and she broke the world record for the second time in two days. Hayes now has six Paralympics medals, three silver in the 100m, two gold in the long jump and a bronze in the 400m in Athens in 2004. She still has the 400m to come.
IOL