On a long day of bronze medals for the German delegation at the Paralympics, Johannes Floors and Tanja Scholz secured a silver medal. The 29-year-old prosthetic runner Floors missed out on defending his title in the 400-meter race. He was consoled by fellow sprinter Irmgard Bensusan immediately after crossing the finish line. Gold went to the American Hunter Woodhall, whose wife Tara Davis-Woodhall won gold in the long jump at the Olympic Games ahead of Malaika Mihambo.
Floors narrowly missed out on a medal in the 100 metres, coming fourth, but was happy with his performance. This time the world champion, who had his lower legs amputated due to persistent pain, lost contact on the home straight, but managed to secure second place by 0.01 seconds. 46.90 seconds was a season best for Floors.
Scholz, who is paraplegic, swam to silver in the 50-meter freestyle. After gold in the 150-meter individual medley, the 40-year-old took silver in 40.75 seconds. Scholz actually came in third, but benefited from the disqualification of the Brazilian Lidia Vieira da Cruz. The American Leanne Smith won with a world record time (40.03 seconds).
Previously, Juliane Wolf in table tennis, judoka Lennart Sass, the German dressage team and swimmer Josia Tim Alexander Topf had won medals for Germany.
Complete medal set
After gold and silver, Topf completed his medal collection with third place in the 50-meter freestyle in 45.61 seconds. The 21-year-old had previously won gold in the 150-meter individual medley and silver in the 50-meter backstroke.
The 36-year-old Wolf missed the table tennis final because she lost 0:3 in sets to Norwegian Aida Husic Dahlen in the round of the best four in the Paris exhibition hall. But by reaching the semi-finals, she was assured of bronze. “I’m disappointed. I had set myself higher goals than I showed in the end,” she said. Wolf won silver in the doubles with Stephanie Grebe at the start of the Paralympics. “If someone had told me beforehand that I would win two medals, I would have been totally happy,” said Wolf.
Disqualification in the semi-finals
Paralympic debutant Sass took third place in the 73 kilogram class by Ippon. He defeated the Uzbek Shokhrukh Mamedov. He had previously been disqualified in the semifinals. The 24-year-old had supported himself with his head, which is not allowed.
A little later, the riders in the park of the Palace of Versailles had certainty. Anna-Lena Niehues had set the pace before Regine Mispelkamp and Heidemarie Dresing completed their lessons properly and secured third place. The victory went to the USA ahead of the Netherlands.
“We wanted to be on the podium, that was our goal,” said national coach Silke Fütterer-Sommer. “It has shown once again that you cannot afford to make any mistakes in this competition. But also that even more is possible if everything goes well.”
No happy ending for sitting volleyball players
The end of the tournament for the German sitting volleyball players was less fortunate. They lost 2:3 to Egypt in a close match. It would have been the first German medal in this sport since 2012. “When you’re so close to a medal and then you lose, it’s so, so bitter. But sometimes 100 percent isn’t enough,” said national player Francis Tonleu dejectedly.
Flag bearer Edina Müller was unable to qualify directly for the final in the 200-meter kayak. The 39-year-old came second in her heat on the course in Vaires-sur-Marne. Only the two heat winners will go directly to the final on Sunday (11:25 a.m.). The paraplegic Müller must first compete in the semifinal (10:00 a.m.).
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