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Maties Parasport goes from strength to strength
Author: Maties Sport Media
Published: 14/04/2018

​Two of the Maties ParaSport club's stalwarts, Dyan Buis and Charl du Toit, added to South Africa's medal count at the Commonwealth Games in Australia in April by winning silver and bronze in the 100m item in the T38 class.

Charl, who usually competes in the T37 class, also broke the world record in this class.    

Reinhardt Hamman (T38) won a bronze medal in the shotput item, while Maties swimmer Christian Sadie won a silver medal in the 50m free style (S7) and achieved a personal best time.    

Maties ParaSport club members also performed well at the recent national championships for persons with disabilities.

According to club manager Wentzel Barnard, one of the highlights was honours student Kerwin Noemdo's Africa record in die shotput (F47) with a distance of 13.44m.         

On the track Anruné Weyers (T47) managed a clean sweep, winning gold in the 100m, 200m and the 400m. The visually impaired master's student Anika Pretorius (T13) achieved a personal best time in the 100m after a frustrating time marred by injuries.        

Paul Daniels (T62), a double amputee and learner at Cloetesville High School, won gold in the 100m and 200m, while Carli Pretorius and Bilaal Dramat, both athletes with cerebral palsy, ​achieved excellent performances in the field items. Carli won gold medals in the shotput and discus and Bilaal broke three records in his field items.            

The under 20 cyclist Matthew Brooks, also an athlete with cerebral palsy​, set a SA record in the 800m and achieved personal best times in the 1500m, the time trial over 6km and the road race over 13km.               

Brandon Beack, a wheelchair athlete, is one of few athletes that excel in both field and track items. He won gold in the discus and shotput for class F53 throwers and was also first in the 100m (T52). He was further honoured by way of an invitation to train at the British Paralympic wheelchair athlete David Weir's Weir Archer Academy.         

Marius Coetzee, a first-year Theology student and a member of the Western Cape goal-ball team – a sport for the visually impaired – was named the player of the goal-ball competition. The team also won the competition for the first time in 26 years by beating Free State 20-12.