Dutch tennis queen supreme as Iraqi wins hearts

LONDON: Dutch wheelchair tennis star Esther Vergeer struck gold again with her 470th straight victory, as Iraq’s cartwheeling Ahmed Naas claimed a javelin silver at the London 2012 Paralympics yesterday.
There were medals galore at the Games, with the wheelchair basketball, goalball and sitting volleyball tournaments coming to a climax on the penultimate full day of competition.
The women’s singles title was never destined for anyone other than Vergeer, who has not lost a singles match since 2003.
“I know the day I will lose will come but I don’t know when,” the 31-year-old Vergeer said after beating compatriot Aniek van Koot 6-0, 6-3 on the blue hardcourts of Eton Manor in east London for her sixth Paralympics gold medal.
“I like the game, so I will continue playing, but for how long I have no clue.” In the Olympic Stadium, China’s Wang Zhiming added the men’s javelin gold medal to the shot and discus titles he won earlier in the Games in the F40 dwarfism category, throwing a world record 47.95m.
But it was Iraq’s Naas who won the hearts of the crowd, cartwheeling for joy en route to claiming the silver medal and parading the Iraqi flag with compatriot Wildan Nukhailawi who took bronze in a final which saw nine throws beating the previous world record of 40.74m.
In the Paralympics-only sport of goalball, Japan breached China’s impressive defense to claim a 1-0 victory in the women’s final at the Copper Box, Akiko Adachi scoring the only goal.
Meanwhile Australia were to take on on Germany in the women’s wheelchair basketball final at the North Greenwich Arena, while the United States face China in the sitting volleyball women’s final at the ExCeL exhibition center.
Great Britain’s Josie Pearson competed in the wheelchair rugby at Beijing 2008 but her switch to athletics paid dividends when she won gold in the women’s F51/52/53 discus.
“Team sport just wasn’t for me. I wanted to get back in the individual side. Everything’s paid off,” she said. “I’m Paralympic champion. It’s the culmination of so many years of hard work.” She took up disability sport to help her recover from the car crash she had aged 17, which killed her boyfriend.
“It’s been a massive part of my recovery. I was very sporty before my accident. And I knew that after my accident I wanted to get back into sport. It’s played a huge role.” South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius was facing the last chance to salvage his Paralympic Games, after losing two of his three individual sprint titles in spectacular fashion.
The 25-year-old “Blade Runner,” the undisputed star of Paralympic sport after last month becoming the first double-amputee to compete in the Olympics, goes in the heats of his specialist event, the T44 400m, in the last race of the night in the Olympic Stadium.
With personal best of 45.39 seconds and the only athlete in the field clocking under 50 seconds, Pistorius should qualify with ease and will be favorite for Saturday’s final, which brings the curtain down on the athletics program.
Pistorius said he was “desperate” to retain his 400m title.
Meanwhile, Rio de Janeiro will go one step further than London when the Paralympic Games come to the Brazilian city in 2016, the head of the country’s Paralympic committee said yesterday.
“When we give back the flag to the International Paralympic Committee at the closing ceremony of the Rio Games, we will do so to a Paralympic movement that will be stronger than before,” Andrew Parsons told a news conference in London.
This year’s Games have been billed as the biggest and most high-profile since they were first held in Rome in 1960, with some 2.7 million tickets sold and athletes competing in packed venues in the British capital.
Parsons said that the success of the current Games was “no surprise” but he pledged: “We are very confident that we can raise the bar even higher than London.” Investment in disabled sport in Brazil has more than doubled from about 77 million reals ($38 million, 30 million euros) in 2005-2008 to some 165 million reals in 2009-2012, 98 percent of which was public sector funding, he added.
That has translated into success in London, with Brazilian athletes among the major stars of the Games, which opened on August 29 and close on Sunday.
They include swimmer Daniel Dias, who has so far won four gold medals, and particularly sprinter Alan Oliveira, who sensationally beat South African star Oscar Pistorius to win gold in the T44 200m last Sunday.
The nation’s footballers have again made the five-a-side final and are looking to defend their unbeaten record since the sport was introduced to the Paralympics in 2004.
Parsons said Paralympians would play a major role in promoting disabled sport in Brazil as well as transforming perceptions about and access for people with disabilities across the country.
“We’re in a country where we still have a long way to go in terms of social inclusion for people with disability,” he told reporters.
“Maybe by 2016 we will not have a perfect country for persons with a disability but it (the Paralympic Games) is a big push. What sport has done for persons with disability is having role models for kids. It’s amazing.
“Every kid in Brazil doesn’t have to dream about being (legendary footballers) Ronaldo or Pele. They can dream about being Daniel Dias or (four-time Paralympic sprinter) Adria Santos. This is very important.
“When you have disabled athletes as heroes, they’re part of society. They’re another element of what we call society. This is a big legacy that can come from the Games.” The chief executive of the Rio 2016 organizing committee for the Olympics and Paralympics, Leonardo Gryner, said his main challenge will be “to sell more than 2.7 million tickets for the Rio Games.”
But he, too, said Rio, which in 2007 hosted the ParaPan American Games, would have a lasting legacy for the estimated 15 percent of people in the South American nation who have “permanent needs regarding accessibility.”
“Through the Paralympic Games, we can take this to the audience and work to achieve it in our daily life,” he said.
All venues will be accessible for people with disabilities, as will public transport and the city’s streets, which would serve as a model for other cities, he added.
“I think we are going to have a very accessible city and it will be successful as an example for the rest of the country,” he said.