Johannesburg – Last week it was Ilse Hayes, earlier this week it was Tyrone Pillay and this weekend it was Union Sekailwe and Reinhardt Hamman who came to the para-athletics party.
Hayes won double sprint gold in Barcelona, and Pillay took shot put gold at the Rio Test event in Brazil on Thursday.
The latest medals to come back to South Africa are a track silver from Sekailwe and and a field gold from Hamman.
Sekailwe took silver in the T38 400-metre at the same meeting at Rio while Hamman took javelin gold at the IPC Athletics Open Dutch National Championships in Breda, Netherlands. Sekailwe who had a disappointing 100m earlier in the week took second spot in an impressive time in an event described by coach Alta Oelofse as a lovely race.
“I was very happy after running my season’s best 52.24 but yes, I know I can definitely run faster than that,” he told Road to Rio 2016.
“Now I’ll go back and work even harder at my training and I will be ready for things.
“Come September and Rio I’ll be ready for all the action, for now it’s just preparing to meet these guys. My next competition will be in Berlin, Germany in July.”
Meanwhile, Hamman was hurling his way to T37 category gold in the Netherlands.
“Today’s competition went really well,” he told Road to Rio 2016.
“My opening throw was a 48.32m which felt rather easy. Then I managed to improve with my second throw to 49.03m.”
But the best was still to come.
“My fourth throw was by far the best as I improved my personal best, SA record and Africa record from 50.06m to 50.22m. I’m super happy with the distance and now I’m looking forward to next week’s competition, the IPC Grand Prix in Nottwill, Switzerland.”
– ANA