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Coetzee shatters the world record again

───   MORGAN PIEK 21:09 Sun, 01 Jul 2018

Coetzee shatters the world record again | News Article
Louzanne Coetzee and Xavier Adams - Reinhardt Hamman

The blind Paralympian from Bloemfontein, Louzanne Coetzee, earned a full-house of medals over the weekend in Berlin, Germany, where she competed in the World Para Athletics Grand Prix.


In the process, Coetzee, along with her guide, Xavier Adams, shattered the T11 World 5000m record and broke the African record in the T11 800m.

On Saturday, Coetzee won the silver medal in the 800m, and also came agonisingly close to winning the gold. It wasn’t to be and she had to settle for second after running 0.17 sec slower than her Mexican counterpart, Monica Rodriquez Saavedra, who won in a time of 2:25.70.

Coetzee set the new African bench mark in the T11 800m at 2:25.87.

On Sunday afternoon, Coetzee and Adams took to the track on their own to run in the 5000m, and this was perhaps because the other athletes are wise enough not to take her on at her own game.

Coetzee shattered the world record in her class by shaving nearly 14 seconds off of her own record to clock a blistering time of 18:00.34. Her previous worlds’ leading time was 18:14.00.

A mere three hours after breaking the world record, Coetzee and Adams competed in the 1500m, where they had to settle for the bronze. After her amazing run earlier in the day it is understandable that they were a bit worn out.

The Polish athlete, Joanna Mazur, took the gold in 5:04.87 to beat Mexico’s Monica Rodriquez Saavedra to the title. The Mexican who had beaten Coetzee the previous day, stopped the clocked at 5:05.03.

Coetzee crossed the finish line in 5:08.71 to clinch the bronze and complete her full house of medals.

“I’m happy with the way things have gone,” Coetzee told OFM Sport.

“Yesterday I told Xavier that I actually thought that it was a blessing in disguise that we didn’t win because it would give us more energy on Sunday, and it did.

“So as I said I really can’t complain with the way things turned out, I’m really happy. I’m happy with the times and with the competition, I think that it went really well.”

Berlin is somewhat of a happy hunting ground for Coetzee, as in 2016 she broke the African T11 1500m record in a time of 5:00.25 to qualify for the Rio Paralympics in Brazil.

Morgan Piek/OFM Sport

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