In London four years ago, Paul had to settle for silver in his keynote event. He had touched the wall second just behind Dubrov.
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Earlier Paul had dominated his heat, winning in 1:06.19 to book his place in the final.
The 25-year-old swam a time of 1:04.86 to edge Denys Dubrov of the Ukraine and secure South Africa’s first medal of the Games. She was the only deaf athlete on the U.S. Paralympic swim team.
“My coach and I discussed this beforehand and it was about going out comfortably and steady”. I was 17 and I came away with a gold, but I don’t think I knew what it really meant, until now. You can’t control the other guy’s training and his racing. “It wasn’t just me in the pool tonight, it was the whole squad, coach and family etc”.
Newcomer, Alani Ferreira, performed well in her first ever Paralympic event, and managed to place 7 in the Women’s 100m Butterfly, S13 classification.
Although she failed to progress to the final‚ she was still over the moon‚ if a little shell-shocked. It hit me on my way to the call room that I was at the Paralympics. Saturday’s 500m time trial is more her style. “This is definitely the beginning of something new”.
Shawn Morelli’s love for cycling has garnered her a number of titles over the last few years. It was a cruel way to lose out for Langenhoven, who had run a season best to qualify for the semifinals against a tough field.
Le Van Cong (C) receives the gold medal.
Roxy Burns is the lone cyclist and her qualifying round of the individual pursuit (C1-3) is at 3pm on Thursday afternoon and if she goes through to the final she’ll be in the saddle once more at 9.30pm.
The Cape Town rider ended 11th in 4min 43.478sec.
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Paul’s world record time in 2008 was 1:08:58.
