Alwande Sikhosana won the battle of the South Africans and booked his ticket to next year’s Paralympics along the way with a straight-sets win over Leon Els at the African Para Games in Accra, Ghana.
Sikhosana and Els had been on the same side of the net when winning the men’s doubles in the wheelchair tennis tournament on Saturday and on Sunday the No1 seed closed out a 6-2 6-3 wi
n over his countryman, the No4 seed.
This was the fifth time the pair had met in competition, and after losing the first two encounters in 2016, Sikhosana, still only 23, has won three in a row – in Soweto in 2017, Nairobi 2020 and now Accra in 2023.
On the wheelchair basketball court, Team SA’s women produced an inspired performance to beat DR Congo 44-20 and book their place in the final. They were particularly ruthless in a three-minute period before half-time where they turned an 8-9 deficit into a 28-9 lead at the interval.
From there it was a case of game management in a second half where their lead was never threatened.
Team SA’s wheelchair basketball men were also in action and they too were on the winning side, beating Kenya 78-31.