It was always going to be a matter of when will Natalie Du Toit secure Team South Africa its first gold medal at the London 2012 Paralympics and she dully did last night. Du Toit successfully defended her 100m butterfly S9 title at the Olympic Park Aquatic Centre, winning it for the third games in succession. Five-time gold medal winner at both the Paralympics in Athens and Beijing, Du Toit speaks proudly about her 11th gold medal.
Leading to this final, Du Toit had opened a three second gap between herself and her competitors and in the heats it narrowed down to two seconds. In the final it got too close as she was second at the 50m split but managed to recover and Du Toit praises Spain's Sarai Gascon (2nd) and USA's Elizabeth Stone for the tough competition.
There was heartbreak for Port Elizabeth's Kevin Paul who missed out on the 200m Individual Medley SM10 bronze today by less than a second as he could only manage to finish fourth. The 2008 Beijing gold medalist in the 100m breaststroke SB9 was not dejected at all by this result.
There's no relaxing for the two swimmers as they will be back in the swimming pool this morning with Du Toit now shifting her focus to the 100m backstroke S9 heats and Paul taking an aim at the 50m freestyle S10 heats and they are both up for the challenge.
Image source: Getty Images
