The rain clouds descended on Paris on Friday, which caused a reshuffle with some sports on day two of the Paralympics.
The wheelchair tennis at Roland Garros was affected the most when it came to Team SA’s competitors, although the sessions went deep into the evening to allow for matches to be completed. One of those was birthday boy Alwande Sikhosana, who came from a break down in the first set to win his first round singles encounter.
Donald Ramphadi and Lucas Sithole reached the wheelchair tennis quad doubles semi-finals with an epic three-set win. KH Montjane and Mariska Venter then made it a perfect three wins at Roland Garros.
Elsewhere, both swimmer Nathan Hendricks and para-athlete Sheryl James were in finals action, and they finished out of the medals.
Earlier, sprinter Jaco Smit was first in action for Team SA in the men’s T12 100m heats where he finished second, but did not progress to the four-man final.
Boccia pool action continued with Elanza Jordaan putting up a brave fight in going down 4-2 to Portugal’s Ana Costa in their Pool B encounter in the BC3 class. Karabo Morapedi also went down, 7-1.
ATHLETICS
Men’s T12 100m: Jaco Smit finished 2nd in his heat in 11.12sec and didn’t qualify as one of four finalists.
Women’s T37 200m, final: Sheryl James finished 7th in 29.08sec
BOCCIA
Women’s individual, BC3, Preliminary Pool B: Elanza Jordaan lost to Ana Costa (Portugal) 4-2
Men’s individual, BC3, Preliminary Pool A: Korabo Morapedi lost to William Arnott (GBR) 7-1
SWIMMING
Men’s 100m backstroke S13, heats: Nathan Hendricks finished 5th in his heat in 1:03.53 to place 8th overall and head into the evening final
Men’s 100m backstroke S13, final: Nathan Hendricks finished 7th in 1:03.43
WHEELCHAIR TENNIS
Men’s singles, first round: Alwande Sikhosana beat Gustavo Silva (Brazil) 6-4 7-5
Quad doubles, quarter-final: Donald Ramphadi and Lucas Sithole beat Francisco Cayulef and Diego Perez (Chile) 6-4 6-7 (1) [10-6]
Women’s doubles, first round: KG Montjane and Mariska Venter vs Charlotte Fairbank and Emmanuel Morch (France) 4-6 6-1 [10-4]
Photo of Nathan Hendricks: ROGER SEDRES/Team SA
SOURCED FROM TEAM SA WEBSITE.
