South Africa: Louzanne Coetzee won Bronze Medal in the Women’s T11 1500m event at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris. She doubled the medal tally after winning the medal at the Stade de France on Monday.
Reportedly, the race produced a world record for the T11 class with Ethiopia’s Yayesh Tesfaw, taking home the gold in 4min 27.68 sec, and won the race.
Coetzee sliced five seconds off the time, as she had put up in winning silver in Tokyo and hit the line with her guide Estean Badenhorst in 4min 35.49sec, with her personal best in the fastest race ever run for T11 athletes.
The 31-year-old sprinter was a double medallist at Tokyo Paralympics 2020 where she has earned the silver medal in the 1500m and the bronze in the marathon, that highlighted her versatility. She again competed in the marathon on the final day of competition on Sunday, offered full transparency in saying it was the 1500m that was the target for Paris.
Considering her win, Coetzee said that she is super chuffed. “Estean has been such a great support throughout the year and since Tokyo, I have received so much support from family and friends. I really thought that we would get close to 4:40, but now we’re closer to 4:30 so I’m not going to stop any time soon,” said the athlete.
She added, “The race went according to plan and we ran controlled splits. At 250m we started passing others but when Estian said 4:15 at 1.4km, I was like ‘what to do now, we have to get this’? Then it was just the home straight.”
“For me the objective was to reach the final. Then, getting closer to the time we could see that I was getting into more PB shape but I wouldn’t have guessed those five seconds!” expressed Coetzee.
They grabbed the pace from the beginning as the Kenyan double act in the field, along with eventual winner Tesfaw and China’s Shanshan. He then pulled away from Coetzee who ran most of the race in fifth spot, and seemingly a long way out of the medals.
However, the South Africans remained patient and started to make steady progress from the final bell signalling 400m to go. Still, they were about 25 metres behind the fourth-placed runners.
Coetzee and her guide pushed the accelerator with 250m to go and they closed the gap on those ahead of them, getting themselves into third position with 100m remaining.
They were never that close to the gold and silver medallist, but Coetzee’s 4:35.49 personal best time was a full six seconds, which was ahead of fourth place.
It was the second medal for Team SA at 2024 Paris Paralympics after Mpumelelo Mhlongo had won gold in the men’s T44 100m on Sunday night.