Ishitile on track for another medal

Lahja Ishitile remained on track to win a second medal at the Paris Paralympic Games when she qualified for the women’s T11 200m final yesterday. 

Ishitile, who became only the third Namibian Paralympian to win gold when she won the T11 400m final in 56,20 seconds last Saturday, yesterday qualified for the T11 200m final after coming second in her heat along with her guide Sem Shimanda.

Cuiqing Liu of China won the heat in 24,77 seconds, while Ishitile finished just behind in a new personal best and African record time of 24,82 seconds. 

With that she booked her place in the final, along with Liu, and the top two finishers in the first heat – Jerusa Geber dos Santos of Brazil (25,00) and Linda Perez Lopez of Venezuela (25,42). 

Liu, who set a new world record of 24,36 seconds in Kobe, Japan in May, will start as the favourite for the final, which takes place at 19h23 tomorrow evening, but Ishitile is the form of her life and has a good chance of adding a second gold medal to her collection. 

Her coach Letu Hamhola said she is in top form.

“Lahja continued her good performances and broke the African record in the 200m – it was the first time that she went below 25 seconds with a new African record as well, so now we have to refocus on the final,” he said. 

“She’s in uncharted territory, but she is having the time of her life, and is in good spirits, so let’s see what she can do in the final,” he added.

Johannes Nambala, meanwhile, narrowly missed out on a medal after coming fourth in the men’s T13 100m final yesterday. 

Skander Athmani of Algeria won the gold medal in 47,43 seconds, while Ryota Fukunaga of Japan won silver in 48,07 seconds. 

Nambala was involved in a titanic battle for the bronze medal with Buinder Bermudez Villar of Colombia and lunged over the line to claim it, but the Colombian just beat him with a time of 48,83 seconds, while Nambala came fourth in 48,89. It was his best time of the season, but well below his personal best of 47,21 seconds and Hamhola said it was a ‘bitter-sweet’ occasion.

“It’s bitter-sweet because everyone wants to get onto the podium and Johnny had previously medalled in 2016 in Rio and 2021 in Tokyo, so he was aiming to medal in three consecutive Paralympic Games. But unfortunately it was not meant to be, so we will take it on the chin and look forward to the world championships next year,” he said.

“Johnny unfortunately had an injury that put his training back a few weeks,

but we congratulate the three medal winners and we continue to work. I am proud of him – he ran like the legend he is, posting a season’s best time and I am proud of the medical team that back him back in time,” he added. 

Ananias Shikongo, meanwhile, narrowly missedout on amedalafter coming fourth in the men’s T11 100m final on Thursday evening. Athanasios Ghavelas of Greece won the race in 11,02 seconds, followed by Timothee Adolphe of France (11,05) and Dongdong Di of China (11,08), while Shikongo came fourth in 11,17 seconds.