Athens - South Africa's athletes with disabilities, described as "super heroes and heroines" by political leaders, get their Athens Paralympics campaign off to a surging start at the weekend.
Tountry can expect the first of a handsome tally of gold medals on the plate by Sunday night.
Fanie Lombaard, the most experienced and successful among South Africa's Paralympians, is set to once again prop the team of 51 athletes on his broad shoulders during the Games.
The big man from Pretoria is primed for an explosive start in the shot put on Sunday along with defending women's shot put champion Zanele Situ, but even these two dynamos may be overshadowed by novices Natalie du Toit in swimming and track sprinter Oscar Pistorius.
One-leg amputee Du Toit is favoured for seven medals and a string of world records along the way in the Olympic Pool next week, while the 17-year-old Pistorius is destined to be a sensation if all goes according to plan in the T44 class 100m and 200m sprints.
Wheelchair athletes Ernst van Dyk, Krige Schabort and middle distance runner Malcolm Pringle are also primed for big things at these Games.
Bristling with energy
Lombaard, however, is not easily overshadowed. He arrived in Athens bristling with energy for two world records in the shot put and discus - so much so that he set a Games-precedent by bringing his "trusty" iron ball to Athens as hand luggage on Thursday.
"That ball has become a part of me - it feels like four kilograms and not six," said Lombaard shortly after his arrival in Athens. "I decided to bring it along and hand it in so it can be officially sanctioned so that I can compete with it." Lombaard raised eyebrows when he arrived at the airport holding the shot in front of him in the manner of a man holding a bouquet of flowers. "Once they understood it was not a security risk, they accommodated me and my shot," laughed Lombaard.
Lombaard, who won gold medals in the pentathlon, shot put and discus, then followed up with a silver in the javelin at Sydney 2000, has decided to focus only on the shot and discus in this, his fourth Paralympics since SA returned from isolation in Barcelona 1992.
"I laughed off the stamina-sapping pentathlon so I could build up my explosive power for the shot and discus," he said. "I've also not been comfortable with the javelin, so I've pushed that aside in favour of the two disciplines where I can feel my power and technique coming through to the full."
Thrown a metre further
Lombaard has gone two metres beyond his world record with 50 metre practice throws in the discus and has thrown a metre further than his best in the shot put, touching down at 14 metres during training.
"Practice throws mean nothing though," he said. "It all comes down to how you perform on the day in competition where weird things can happen. But if it all comes together, I should beat the world records."
Situ, the unassuming wheelchair athlete whose throwing talents were discovered in a remote area of the Transkei, could once again set South Africa's gold medal tally off when she competes in the F54 shot put final at 17:00 on Sunday.
That is, if cyclists Janos Plekker and Stephen Herholdt who compete in the 1km time trial on Saturday, do not spring a huge surprise or two and beat Situ to the podium.
Swimmer Scott Field, who prefers the 50m and 100m freestyles, may also pull a big one off in the 100m butterfly on Sunday and if he goes through to the final, he takes to the water at exactly the same time Situ arrives at the start of the shot put.
South Africans begin Paralympic action on a low key on Saturday morning following Friday night's opening ceremony, then kick in with some heavy business on Sunday with Natalie du Toit. The Capetonian is primed for her first gold of the Games in the 100m butterfly, while seasoned medal winner Tadgh Slattery puts his first medal challenge in for the SM6 200 IM.
Mark Nilson, Johan du Plooy, Rose Rise, Alet Moll and Pieter du Plooy kick off their tough table tennis programme on Saturday, while Plekker and Herholdt take to the Vellodrome to face the kilo "Race of Truth" in the afternoon.
The athletes could not have asked for a higher-voltage sendoff to their Paralympic campaign on Thursday night. "You are our super heroes," Essop Pahad, minister in the office of the presidency, told the team at a lavish dinner in the garden of SA ambassador Jannie Momberg.
