Kerwin Noemdo finished fifth in the men’s F64 shot put final.
Quadriplegic handcyclist Pieter du Preez secured a crucial medal for the South African team on Wednesday morning, claiming bronze in the men’s H1 time trial at the Paralympic Games in Paris.
Du Preez, who won gold at the Tokyo Games three years ago, completed the 14.2km course in Paris in 36:07.05 to grab third place.
Fabrizio Cornegliani of Italy took the win, and the gold medal, in 34:50.45, and Maxime Hordies bagged silver in 35:11.13.
Du Preez earned Team SA’s third medal of the showpiece (one gold and two bronze), edging the struggling squad a little higher up the medals table with less than five days of competition remaining.
Noemdo puts up a fight
Meanwhile, in athletics, Kerwin Noemdo fell narrowly short of adding to the medal tally in the men’s F64 shot put final.
Noemdo was remarkably consistent, sending the shot well beyond 15 metres with all four of his legal attempts, but he settled for fifth position with a best throw of 15.63m in the opening round.
Canadian athlete Greg Stewart won gold with a 16.38m heave.
In the swimming pool on Wednesday morning, Christian Sadie finished seventh overall in the men’s 50m freestyle S7 heats in 29.27 seconds, progressing to the final to be held in the evening session (7.06pm).
Alani Ferreira was 12th in the women’s S12 100m freestyle heats in 1:09.69, missing out on a spot in the final.
Chasing medals
Some other athletes in the SA team still had medal hopes on day seven of the Paris Games.
In the afternoon, wheelchair tennis player Donald Ramphadi and Lucas Sithole were set to compete in the bronze medal match in the quad doubles division at 12pm, and 100m champion Mpumelelo Mhlongo was due to line up in the men’s T64 long jump final at 8.30pm.
