Coetzee’s bronze ‘so much more special’ after eight-year wait
IT took Louzanne Coetzee eight years to reach the pinnacle of her athletics career, and all the sacrifices were all worth it as she claimed her second medal of the Tokyo Paralympics yesterday.
Having finished second in the women’s 1 500m (T11) final on Monday – along with her guide Estean Badenhorst – Coetzee tackled the women’s marathon (T11 and T12) yesterday with a new guide in Claus Kempen.
She was modest about her hopes for success beforehand, stating in the aftermath of her 1 500m silver medal that she was just hoping to enjoy the 42.2km slog through Tokyo as she had qualified for it.
But the 28-year-old surpassed all expectations with a late charge to finish third in a time of 3hr 11min 13sec, a new world record in the T11 class, to secure Team South Africa’s seventh medal.
Another athletics star, Ntando Mahlangu, won two golds, fellow track runner Anrune Weyers and cyclist Pieter du Preez were also champions, while sprinter Sheryl James finished third in the 400m to go with Coetzee’s silver and bronze.
“Since 2013, I have been involved for eight years with the sport, and having waited for eight years makes it so much more special,” Coetzee said.
“What makes it so special for me is that it is a mixed class event, and I am running against 12s and 11s. I really didn’t think with the first 30km, where we fifth for a very long time, that it was never a thing in my head that I must move up to third.
“So, when we got into third position, then I realised this was a possibility. I really think that we are very blessed with how the race went. I’ve had the misfortune to run some very bad marathons, but this was really enjoyable for me.”
Coetzee stayed in touch with the leaders, going through 30km in fifth place.
But that is when Kempen thought that they could go past Brazil’s Edneusa de Jesus Santos and Portugal’s Maria Fiuza into a podium position.