Natalie makes a splash

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Athens - Natalie du Toit got her debut Paralympic campaign off to an explosive start by beating her own world record by almost three seconds in the women's 100m butterfly heats at the Athens Aquatic Centre on Sunday.

The Cape Town swimmer, who lost her right leg in a scooter accident four years ago, shot through to Sunday night's' final with a 1min 07.69sec victory in her heat, beating her 1:10:55 world record she set in Durban in March.

The world mark is the trigger for what could develop into Du Toit emerging as a sensation at the Games. She is favourite for six other events - the 50, 100 and 400 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke and 200m IM - during the course of next week.

Swimmers Scott Field, Tadhg Slattery, and Oliver Nathan qualified for Sunday night finals in the 100 butterfly in their disability classifications.

In table tennis, Mark Nilsen has been the only winner so far in prelim rounds with his 3-1 victory against Antonios Kalyvas of Greece, while both Stephan Herholdt and Janos Plekker made it through into the individual pursuit semi-finals on Monday.