The German Paralympics team had to wait four days for gold – then a double blow followed. They won bronze in rowing and track cycling.
The German Paralympic team waited four days for a gold medal – then there were two big cheers during the swimming competition within ten minutes. Tanja Scholz and Josia Tim Alexander Topf each achieved Paralympic success in the 150 meter individual medley. The longed-for gold is finally here. “I looked at the scoreboard and thought: Oh my God. My name is right at the top. Then I understood it,” said Scholz. Topf completed the gold day just a little later.
Things didn’t go well for Scholz after the first 50 meters. “I just can’t do backstroke. That’s always crap,” said the 40-year-old, who is paraplegic. “Breaststroke went surprisingly well, I had strength and was able to hold my own. After the turn I saw the athlete next to me and said: Tanja, you can do crawl. Now show what you can do – it was enough.” With the successful comeback, Scholz also set a Paralympics record of 2:51.31 minutes. Gina Böttcher came fourth.
Topf, who has a deformity of the arms, was already on course for gold after the first 50 meters of the backstroke. In the breaststroke discipline, the 21-year-old student from Erlangen lost his lead and turned around in third place. With a strong final spurt, he overtook his two Australian competitors Ahmed Kelly and Grant Patterson and took his first Paralympics victory.
“The last three years have been very tough. A lot has happened,” explained Topf, citing an illness after winning silver at the 2022 World Championships, the death of his grandfather and his dog. “To come out of here now with this success means a lot to me,” he said.
Rowers with luck and bad luck
The rowing duo Jan Helmich and Hermine Krumbein had previously won bronze in the mixed competition. On the 2,000-meter course in Vaires-sur-Marne, just outside Paris, they finished third in 7:28.31 minutes. After a final spurt, the two Germans crossed the finish line just under a tenth of a second behind the second-placed duo from Great Britain.
The coxswain foursome, on the other hand, had a lot of bad luck. Susanne Lackner, Valentin Luz, Marc Lembeck, Kathrin Marchand and Inga Thöne only managed fourth place in the mixed doubles, trailing France by just six hundredths of a second.
The visually impaired track cyclist Thomas Ulbricht and his guide Robert Förstemann sprinted to third place in the 1,000-meter time trial in the Vélodrome, just like Maike Hausberger the day before. The 39-year-old was only beaten by the two Britons James Ball (with Steffan Lloyd) and Neil Fachie (with Matthew Rotherham).
“We delivered two top races. We can be satisfied with that. We are proud of the bronze,” said Ulbricht. It was his third Paralympics medal. Förstemann won bronze in the team sprint at the 2012 Olympics in London.
Track and field athletes still fail to impress
The day was sobering for the German athletes at the Stade de France. The small shot putter Yannis Fischer did not manage to get beyond sixth place. Katrin Müller-Rottgardt had to settle for fifth place in the long jump and Merle Menje in the 800 meters and Max Marzillier in the 100 meters missed their finals. Nicole Nicoleitzik also came eighth in the 200 meters.
Source: Stern
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