Medals raining down on Dutch athletes at Paralympic Games
Tuesday has been a good day for the Dutch athletes at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Gold medals went to cyclist, Daniel Abraham Gebru, and hand bikers Jetze Plat and Mitch Valize in their various time trials. Marlene van Gansewinkel took gold in the 200 meter athletics.
A total of 926 medals were handed out since the games began on August 24. The Netherlands was in seventh for gold medals with 14. It has taken another nine silver and nine bronze, putting the country at 11th for total medals.
Cyclist Vincent Ter Schure took silver in the B-Class with pilot Timo Fransen on Tuesday. Hand cyclist Jeanette Jansen took bronze in the H4/5 class. Kimberly Alkemade took bronze in the 200 meter athletics. Swimmer Chantalle Zijderveld took bronze on the 100 butterfly - her fourth medal at the Tokyo 2020 after taking gold on the 100 school and silver on the 50 and 100 free form.
Abraham was the clear winner of the C5 class, covering 32 kilometers of the Fuji International Speedway in 42.46 minutes, 32 seconds faster than Ukraine's Yegor Dementjev who took silver and 50 seconds ahead of Australia's Alistair Donohoe, who took bronze. Abraham was overjoyed by his victory. "We made. We just did it. Everything was just right. Thank you guys, thank you," he said.
Plat completed the 24 kilometer time trial on the Fuji International Speedway in 37.28 minutes, one minute faster than Austrian Thomas Frühwirth, and 2.30 minutes faster than German Alexander Gritsch. This is the second gold medal for 30-year-old Plat, after he won the triathlon on Sunday. "We have the second one," Plat exulted afterwards. "I'm so happy. I didn't leave an percent over today. I went to the max."
Valize took 38.12 minutes in the H5 class and was convincingly the fastest, beating silver's French Loic Vergnaud by a minute. Irishman Gary O'Reilly took bronze. "Incredible," Valize said afterwards. "The Games for the first time and I take gold in the time trial."
Reporting by ANP and NL Times