By GARY LEMKE in Paris It’s a bronze medal that’s worth its weight in gold. Pieter du Preez ride to the podium in the won in the H1 cycling time-trial at the 2024 Paralympics on Wednesday was full of character and ultimately emotion as he crossed the finish line in 36min 7.05sec in third…

Donald Ramphadi and Lucas Sithole won the bronze medal in the quad doubles bronze medal match at Roland Garrios, giving Team SA their first-ever Paralympic wheelchair tennis medal. Ramphadi and Sithole beat Leandro Pena and Ymanitu Silva 6-2 4-6 10-8 following a tense match tiebreak. South Africa has become the 13th nation to win a…

Such are the vagaries of the Paralympic classification system that Mpumelelo Mhlongo broke the world record in the T44 long jump at the Stade de France but only managed fifth spot in the field. Mhlongo was already the world record holder with 7.07m in the classification, but came up against athletes in the T62 and…

By GARY LEMKE  Peddie, at last census count, population 4,658. Two hours by bus to Gqeberha, one hour to East London. It's rural Eastern Cape. There are 86 percent isiXhosa speakers, 98 percent of the people are Black Africans and 46 percent are male. And then there is Ndyebo Lamani, one of a kind. …

There were two African records in the pool but no medals for Team SA on Tuesday at the 2024 Paralympics. They remain on two medals heading into Wednesday, following Mpumelelo Mhlongo's T44 100m gold and Louzanne Coetzee's T11 1500m silver. There were three sports represented by Team SA on the day – swimming, athletics and…

Puseletso Mabote cut a distraught figure as he attempted to digest his run in the final of the men’s T63 100m at the 2024 Paralympics inside the Stade de France on Monday night. Mabote, who had equalled the Paralympic record of 12.05sec in Sunday’s heats, had gone into the final with a lot of…

By GARY LEMKE in Paris Kirsty Weir emphatically proved that it’s not how you start but how you finish when she cut through the field to place eighth in the women’s PTS4 triathlon on Monday. The South African, who less than 18 months ago couldn’t ride a bike or swim, and yet had been encouraged…

By GARY LEMKE in Paris Louzanne Coetzee doubled Team SA’s medal tally at the 2024 Paralympics when she won the bronze medal in the 1500m at the Stade de France on Monday morning. The race produced a world record for the T11 class with Ethiopia’s Yayesh Tesfaw taking gold in 4min 27.68sec.  Coetzee herself…

By GARY LEMKE in Paris Mpumelelo Mhlongo heard Nkosi sikelel'iAfrika played loudly in front of a packed 80,000 Stade de France stadium on Sunday night and afterwards did a jig of joy, jumping up and down on the podium at the medal ceremony. It was certainly Mhlongo’s moment. The 30-year-old blitzed to victory in the…

By GARY LEMKE in Paris South Africa has a new sporting hero. Step forward Mpumelelo Mhlongo, who delivered the country’s first medal at the 2024 Paralympic Games. Not only was he the first medallist but it was gold as he scorched to victory at the Stade de France on Sunday. “I didn’t execute the race…