Maties Parasport members are currently competing in different competitions abroad in a last bid to secure a place in the 2016 Paralympic team to Rio.
Maties Parasport cyclists were well represented in the South African team competing in Belgium at the UCI Para-cycling World cup.
Stuart McCreadie took silver in the time trail (TT) and bronze in the road race (RR) in class H3 for hand cyclists. Goldy Fuchs (T2) had the best results in the cycling competition with a bronze medal in the time trail and a 5th place in the road race. Craig Rigard was 11th in the time trial and 6th in the road race while BJ van der Walt was 13th (TT) and 12th (RR).
As part of her preparation for Rio 2016, three-time Paralympian Ilse Hayes was in action at the 11th International Paralympic Meeting of L'Hospitalet in Barcelona last week.
The visually impaired runner (T13) won gold in both the 100m and 200m items.
Javelin thrower Reinhardt Hamman was the second athlete from the club to compete in Europe. He won gold at the IPC Athletics Open Dutch National Championships in Breda, Netherlands, with a personal best distance of 50,22m in his class F38. This is also an African and SA record.
Other Rio hopefuls – sprinters Charl du Toit, Dyan Buis, Fanie van der Merwe and Arnu Fourie – left for Europe on Tuesday.
Most of the athletes will compete at the IPC Grand Prix in Nottwil, Switzerland, this weekend.
Veteran Paralympic field athlete Zanele Situ and her coach Karin le Roux will depart in four weeks' time for competitions in Poland and Germany.
Earlier this month visually impaired swimmer and Stellenbosch law student Hendri Herbst won gold (50 m freestyle) and silver (100 m freestyle) at the IPC European Championships in Portugal. Before Portugal, Herbst competed in the Rio Test event in Brazil.
Wentzel Barnard, manager of the Maties Parasport Club, congratulated the cyclists, swimmers and athletes on their performances and wished them well for their final preparations.
Photo: Arnu Fourie and Fanie van der Merwe representing WP earlier this year at the Nedbank National Champs for the Physically Disabled. Photo credit: Martin Potgieter, Bonzai Photography
