Mhlongo, Coetzee live up to billing for Team SA

Mhlongo cruised to victory on Sunday night, winning in 11.12secs, ahead of Cuba’s Yamel Vives Suarez (11.20) and Eddy Bernard from Malaysia, who won bronze with a time of 11.58.

Coetzee, a visually impaired athlete, finished third in the T-11 1500m final clocking a personal best time of 4:35.49 in the final race to secure her place on the podium.

The race was won by world champion Yayesh Gate Tesfaw of Ethiopia, who set a new world record of 4:27.68.

Finishing second, five seconds behind the Ethiopian, was Shanshan He of China.

Coetzee won bronze in the same event at the World Championships in Kobe, Japan, last year and silver at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, but her times were significantly slower back then.

Mhlongo, Team SA’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony in Paris, is a Kearsney old boy and this year’s winner of Athletics SA’s Sportsman of the Year with a Disability.

After the race, Mhlongo said he could have done better, having had a poor start, but was thrilled to have placed South Africa on the medals table. He was especially happy that his wife was in the stands with his mother for the first time, and his mother-in-law.

An exceptionally talented all-rounder and leader from an early age, Mhlongo was head of house at Kearsney, head of the college’s acclaimed choir when it won gold at the 2012 World Choir Games, captain of the second soccer team and he achieved academic honours cum laude, achieving seven distinctions in his final matric results. He also speaks six languages: English, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, French and Portuguese.

Among South Africa’s track and field medal hopes at these Games, he was already a Paralympic Games record holder, as well as a T44 world record holder in 100m, 200m and long jump. He competed at the Games in Tokyo three years ago.

Mhlongo, 30, was born with a congenital deformity that left his right foot severely deformed and the chance of amputation strong, and with the development of his fingers also affected. But he never let these physical challenges hold him back while growing up in Klaarwater.