Athens - Wheelchair athlete Ernst van Dyk was cut off from a certain gold medal by Mexico's Saul Mendoza in the 1 500m final Athens Paralympics at the Olympic Stadium on Tuesday.
The Paarl athlete controlled the pace from the gun, but with 200m to go the Mexican came through on the outside and cut the South African off, forcing his left wheel off the ground.
Van Dyk had to take evasive action to prevent his lightweight rail from going over, which lost him precious ground.
The manner in which he held off the charge and gained ground on Mendoza down the main straight for the silver in 3:05.29 to the Mexican's 3:04.88, spoke volumes for Van Dyk's form at these Paralympics.
"I've no option, but to protest," said Van Dyk. "What he did was illegal. The rules are clear that you can only cut inside when you have clear ground against the athlete you're overtaking. The only thing that was clear between him and me was that he touched my front wheel.
"I lost traction when my left wheel lifted, and I felt I was catching him up down the main straight. I wanted him to go ahead at that point so that I could come off his wheel for the line. I know if it was just him and me, I would have got gold."
Athletics team manager Ampie Louw lodged an appeal and Van Dyk was waiting through the course of Tuesday morning to hear whether the Mexican had been disqualified which would have moved him up to gold, followed by Marcel Hug (Switzerland) and Kurt Fearnley (Australia).
In the end though, van Dyk and the team management decided to withdraw the protest.
"But hey, silver is good. I'm happy with that," said Van Dyk. "My main race is the 400m and I'm going for the marathon. Whatever happens in between is a bonus."
Van Dyk has by far the busiest racing programme of the SA team.
On Wednesday he races a 5 000m qualifier, then a 400m qualifier followed by a 400m semi-final.
Then he gets a day's rest for the 400m final on Thursday, but has to be up at the crack of dawn on Friday for his 800m first round. Later that evening he is earmarked for the 5 000m final.
Saturday's another early start with an 800m semi-final with the final scheduled for later in the day.
Then, on Sunday he and Krige Schabort, who won the marathon silver at Sydney 2000, take on the 42.2km marathon.
