18 Aug WPA Sprinters in action at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo
TWO local Western Province Athletics (WPA) sprinters and a coach will be hoping to fly South Africa’s flag high at the Paralympic games in Tokyo.
Ndodomzi Jonathan Ntutu, a visually impaired sprinter from Gugulethu in Cape Town, will be reaching a magnificent milestone when represents South Africa at his fifth Paralympic Games in Japan.
Ntutu will be joined by University of Cape Town’s (UCT) star sprinter Mpumelelo Mhlongo who broke his own world record at the World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai in 2019.
Mhlongo has managed to overcome all the odds despite being born with amniotic band syndrome – which resulted in club foot and his right leg being shorter than his left. He competes in the T64 and T44 class with a best time of 11.09 seconds in the 100m.
Mhlongo still keeps working hard to take his world record into realms unheard of for T44 athletes. His coach Jason Sewanyana will also be accompanying him to the games.
Ntutu is currently regarded as South Africa’s fastest ever para-athlete. On 12 April 2018 the now 35-year-old ran a blistering 10.80 seconds during the heats of the Commonwealth Games. Competing in the T12 classification, Ntutu has thus far competed in four Summer Paralympic Games, winning bronze in the 2012 Games in London and silver in Rio 2016. He is also a multiple World Championships winner, taking five medals over four tournaments.
Jonathan was born with a congenital complication that left him visually impaired, though he is not completely blind. He was unable to cope in mainstream education and his parents, who struggled financially, ensured that his needs were catered for by enrolling him in the Athlone School for the Blind. His father died in 1996, when Ntutu was entering his early teen years. He now lives in Bellville, Western Cape.
Ntutu first showed promise as an athlete whilst at the Athlone school, showing an aptitude for sprinting. He was inspired to compete at the Paralympic Games after a pupil at his school qualified for the South Africa team at the 2000 Games in Sydney. A local trainer, David Williams, began coaching him at the Vygieskraal Stadium in Athlone.
His efforts were rewarded, when in 2004, he was selected for the South African team at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens. Initially classified as a T13 category athlete, for competitors with limited vision, he entered two events in Athens, the 100 metres sprint (T13) and the long jump (F13). He finished sixth overall in the long jump and his time of 11.34 in the heats of the 100m saw him finish two hundredths of a second outside the qualification time for the finals. Two years later he won his first major international medal, taking bronze in 100 metre sprint at the 2006 IPC Athletics World Championships in Assen.
In 2008 Ntutu competed at his second Paralympics, travelling to China to compete in the Beijing Games. He no longer competed in the long jump, but still entered two events, the 100 metre and 200 metre sprints. In the 100 metres he surpassed his achievement at the 2004 Games by qualifying through to the finals, where he finished fifth with a time of 11.06 seconds.
In the build-up to the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, Ntutu entered his second World Championships, this time held in Christchurch, New Zealand. He entered all three sprint events, winning silver behind Russia’s Alexey Labzin in the 100 metres and narrowly missing the podium with fourth place in the 400 metres.
His biggest breakthrough of his career came at the London 2012 Paralympics, where he qualified for both the 100 metre and 200 metre sprints, making the finals of both. He finished sixth in the 200 m, but in the 100 metres he took the bronze medal, beating Labzin in a photo finish for the third spot.
At the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon, Ntutu came away a double medallist, winning a silver in the 100 metres (behind Ireland’s Jason Smyth) and a first major medal in the 200 metres, a third placed bronze.
Two years later Ntutu sight was deemed to have deteriorated, and he was reclassified as a T12 classification athlete. This allowed him to enter his first African Games, as traditionally the T13 sprint was not contested. Held in Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo, Ntutu entered the 2015 African Games competing in the T12 200 metre sprint. He took gold, finishing ahead of countryman and fellow ex-Athlone School pupil Hilton Langenhoven.
At the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha Ntutu took silver in the 200 metres but he was disqualified from the 100 m. The next year he added a second Paralympic medal when he took a silver in the 100 metres at the 2016 Games in Rio.
