The German Disabled Sports Association can celebrate six medals at the start of the week in Paris. However, the gold favorites cannot fulfill expectations.
The set of medals is now complete, but that is no consolation for Niko Kappel. Instead of his second Paralympic gold, the small-statured shot putter from VfB Stuttgart had to settle for silver at the games in Paris. He won bronze in Tokyo three years ago, and in 2016 he was unbeatable in Rio de Janeiro. Now, as world champion, he was aiming to return to the top at the second major event of the year. In the French capital, however, Kappel’s best throw only landed at a distance of 13.74 meters – which meant second place.
“I would actually say that I gave away gold,” said the Swabian. “That was definitely not what I wanted to achieve. That always sounds stupid because I still got the silver medal. But I was just a few centimeters short.”
80-strong fan base
58, to be precise. The Uzbek Bobirjon Omonov – who had already been identified as the biggest competitor before the competition – managed to throw 14.32 metres with his shot put. The 29-year-old Kappel had already thrown 15.07 metres this season, setting a world record.
“I didn’t even get into the competition, I’ll have to get over that first,” he said, visibly disappointed. Kappel only broke into a smile when he was able to talk about his 80-strong fan base at the Stade de France, who had specially made a T-shirt and loudly supported their protégé. “I felt at home here – a great atmosphere. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make the most of it.”
Pot with second medal within one day
Swimmer Josia Tim Alexander Topf won two medals within 24 hours. After gold on Sunday in the 150 meter individual medley, he took silver in the 50 meter backstroke. “I can’t describe it because it’s unbelievable and I still can’t understand it,” said the 21-year-old, who has a deformity of the arms. “It’s just perfect.”
There were also congratulations from Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who was present in the hall. “She said to me: fantastic performance. It was a nice, unexpected encounter,” reported Topf.
Only Streng on the podium
Despite their great ambitions, the sprinters at the Stade de France only won one bronze medal. Felix Streng came third in the T64 classification over 100 meters. Johannes Floors crossed the finish line directly behind him, and Leon Schäfer also came fourth in the T63 category, although he had announced the day before: “I’m going to get the thing.”
Inspired by the chants of “Thomas, Thomas” in the Arena Porte de la Chapelle, Thomas Wandschneider played brilliantly. The badminton veteran fulfilled his dream of a medal with a 2-0 win in sets in the match for third place against Jaegun Jeong from South Korea, thus winning Germany’s first ever medal in this sport.
“I always had this dream that I could do it, and I actually did it. And the craziest thing is that I managed it at almost 61 years old. It’s terrible that I have to show young people how it works when I’m over 60,” said the paraplegic Wandschneider.
Three medals for triathletes
Triathlete Max Gelhaar had already won silver. Later, the German flag bearer Martin Schulz and Anja Renner rounded off the triathletes’ successful day with bronze medals at the time-honored Pont Alexandre III bridge.
Table tennis player Valentin Baus was surprisingly eliminated in the singles competition. The Tokyo 2021 Paralympics champion lost 2-3 to Turkey’s Ali Öztürk in the quarterfinals despite a 2-0 lead. Together with Thomas Schmidberger, Baus secured the silver medal in the doubles in Paris.
Source: Stern
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