WORLD RECORD: Mpumelelo Mhlongo leaps to new mark, but misses medal

By Garrin Lambley

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.

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Mhlongo was already the world record holder with 7.07m in the classification, but came up against athletes in the T62 and T64 class.

T64 jumper Markus Rehm produced a leap of 8.13m to take gold as Mhlongo improved his world record to 7.12m.

Meanwhile, two more bronze medals came Team South Africa’s way at the Paris 2024 Paralympics on Wednesday.

Cycling’s Pieter du Preez (men’s H1 individual time trial) and the wheelchair tennis quad doubles of Donald Ramphadi and Lucas Sithole delivered in style to win bronze medals and take Team SA’s overall tally to four.

ATHLETICS

Men’s F46 shot put, final: Kerwin Noemda produced a best effort of 15.63m, his first attempt, which placed him 5th. Gold was won by Canada’s Greg Stewart with 16.38m

Men’s T64 long jump, final WORLD RECORD! Mpumelelo Mhlongo (T44) finished fifth in the final with a best leap of 7.12m, to go with other distances of 7.04m, 6.92m, 6.89m, 6.86m and 6.85m. Gold went to the T64 athlete Markus Rehm of Germany with 8.13m.

Women’s T37 100m, heats: Sheryl James finished 3rd in her heat in 13.69 to qualify for the final

CYCLING

Men’s H1 Individual Time Trial BRONZE! Pieter du Preez finished third in 36:07.05

EQUESTRIAN

Individual event, Grade IV: Philippa Johnson-Dwyer finished 14th on Just In Time with 63.889 points

SWIMMING

Men’s S7 50m freestyle, heats: Christian Sadie finished 4th in his heat in 29.27 and qualified 7th fastest for the evening final

Men’s S7 50m freestyle, final: Christian Sadie finished 7th in an African record 28.75

Women’s SB12 100m freestyle, heats: Alani Ferreira finished 6th in her heat in 1:09.69 and did not progress to the final

WHEELCHAIR TENNIS

Quad doubles, BRONZE! Donald Ramphadi and Lucas Sithole beat Pena and Silva (Brazil) 6-2, 4-6, [10-8]

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