In table tennis, the men’s doubles are also playing for the gold medal. But the semifinals are not for the faint-hearted. The swimmers can also celebrate – thanks to an 18-year-old.
The swimmers breathed a sigh of relief and the German table tennis players cheered loudly in the South Paris Arena. Paralympic debutant Maurice Wetekam secured the first medal for the German team in the pool at the La Défense Arena. The 18-year-old, who was born with a deformity of his left arm, came third in the 100-meter breaststroke. “Unbelievable, it’s an incredible feeling,” he said.
By reaching the final, Valentin Baus and Thomas Schmidberger are certain to leave the French capital with at least a silver medal. They advanced to the final after a thrilling 3:2 win in sets against Abdullah Öztürk and Nesim Turan from Turkey and will play for gold on Saturday (2 p.m.).
“It was another close match. Things are going very well so far,” said the paraplegic Schmidberger. As in the quarterfinals, the German duo needed five sets to win. “They want to annoy me or maybe give the spectators something. They succeeded in both,” said national coach Volker Ziegler jokingly.
Thomas Brüchle and Sandra Mikolaschek, however, have no chance of winning a medal. The table tennis duo lost 2:3 in the quarterfinals against the Thais Wijittra Jaion and Yuttajak Glinbancheun.
Preparation with problems
The day also ended without anything to show for swimmers Tanja Scholz and Verena Schott. Schott came seventh in the 200-meter individual medley, but improved her entry time by six seconds. “I’m the type of person who gets better the longer the competition goes on,” said the 35-year-old, whose preparation was severely disrupted by a serious respiratory illness. However, she still has other opportunities to shine.
Scholz was unable to improve and finished eighth. However, due to a lack of competition in her own classification, the athlete from PSV Neumünster had to swim in a different class, in which she has almost no chance. “There are too few races in the small starting classes. This means that inclusion needs to be revived more so that everyone can get in the water,” said Schott.
“Not our day”
The first appearance of the wheelchair basketball team was also sobering. Germany had no chance against the USA and lost 44:73 (20:41). “It may not have been our day, but that’s okay. We believe that we can do what we can in the next game,” said 24-year-old Lisa Bergenthal, who criticized her and her teammates for poor decision-making and a lack of luck with their shots.
The sitting volleyball players got off to a better start, beating Brazil 3-0. “I didn’t expect that,” said national coach Christoph Herzog after the surprisingly clear opening victory. “We struck at the right time today. It was a deserved victory.”
Source: Stern
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