Lombard wins 11th medal

2008-09-10 16:23

Beijing - Fanie Lombard entrenched his position as the owner of the most medals by a South African Paralympian on Wednesday when he won bronze in the shot put F42 at the Paralympics in Beijing.

His precious metal haul over the years now stands at seven gold, two silver and two bronze.

He confirmed his third spot in a tough final with his final throw of the competition, his 13.87m effort sealing the deal behind the world record 14.43m of Darko Kralj of Croatia.

"It's getting tough out there," said the genial veteran of four Paralympics, who is just a year shy of his 40th birthday. "The guys are getting very professional, and I really didn't expect to get a medal," he added.

But he wouldn't rule out the possibility of competing in the Paralympics one more time in London in 2012. "I'll only stop when they stop giving me medals," he joked. "I'll tell you when I'll quit after my brandy tonight," he added.

He got support in South Africa's medal chase from David Roos in the men's long jump F46 with a silver - and it also took his last effort to make sure of it.

Tough missing out

"I didn't know where I was throughout the competition,"he said, "and when I checked with the officials after my last jump and they told me, I asked them three times if they were sure," said Roos, who missed a medal with his fourth-place finish in Athens four years ago.

He produced a leap of 6.64m to edge China's Li Kangyong down into third.

"It was tough missing out in Athens," said Roos, "but it's the kind of thing you have to learn from. You have to learn from losing." The event was won by Arnaud Assoumani of France in a world record 7.23m.

In other track events on Wednesday, Marius Stander stumbled on the line of the 400m T38 final as he tried to get the bronze medal ahead of Ukraine's Andriy Onufriyenko and had to be satisfied with a season's best performance of 52.56.

And Chenelle van Zyl was unable to progress to the final three throws of the women's javelin F35-38, with her best of 17.86m leaving her in 14th place.

- SAPA