Alani Ferreira provided two of the highlights for Team SA in Paris on Saturday, breaking the African record in the S12 400m freestyle twice in one day, at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games in France on Saturday, 31 August, 2024.
The S12 swimmer, who competes in the S13 category for the 400m freestyle against swimmers less visually impaired than she is, finished in a new African record time of 4:58.06 in her morning heat.
Then, having booked her place in a first final at her third Paralympic Games, Ferreira followed that up with an even quicker time of 4:55.95 in the evening, to finish in eighth place – another massive personal best and new national and continental record.
“I’m very happy! This is the race that I say is my race because I do this one because I love it, not because I’m necessarily particularly very good at it. This is the one I do because I literally just love swimming and racing so I’m very happy to have gotten that time.”
Alani Ferreira after Setting a New African S12 400m Freestyle Record
The 400m freestyle is not an event that is one of Ferreira’s priorities, with her speciality being the 100m breaststroke. So having to swim two 400m races in one day, can be gruelling, particularly considering she sprained both her ring fingers in a gym incident just before the start of the Games.
“It definitely hurts. I’m not going to lie, but this is what we train for. We don’t often get to do two 400s, but when we do, I love it, you get to really push your body past the limit, so I enjoyed it,” she said.
As for her injured fingers, Ferreira added: “They’re feeling much better. The left hand is still a bit funky, but it’s not so painful.
“When you’re racing you have so much adrenaline, you actually don’t even realise anything that’s going on. So it’s not bad at all, I can dive without pain and everything, so luckily I had a really good medical team and it’s all sorted in time for racing.”
The Pietermaritzburg swimmer will be back in the pool for the SB12 100m breaststroke heats on 5 September.
A best-ever performance in the 400m freestyle certainly bodes well in terms of her speed heading into her main event. “Now I definitely know I’m fit enough, now it’s just a thing of getting that last-minute speed work done to make sure that I can go out hard enough and then obviously have the back-end coming back in the last 50 of the 100,” she said.
Ferreira’s teammate Danika Vyncke also achieved a personal best in the S13 400m freestyle on Saturday. Competing in her first Paralympics, the 17-year-old finished in a time of 5:10.91. While that wasn’t quick enough to see her through to the final, it did take a massive 10 seconds off her previous best time.
Meanwhile, over at Roland Garros, news emerged of recently crowned Wimbledon doubles champion KG Montjane’s withdrawal from the wheelchair tennis tournament. Montjane withdrew from both the singles and doubles for personal reasons, with the three-time Grand Slam champion still dealing with the loss of her mother in recent weeks.
That also brings an end to Montjane’s doubles partner Mariska Venter’s Paralympic campaign after the pair came from a set down to win their first match on Friday night. Venter lost her opening singles match against Japan’s second seed Yui Kamiji 6-2, 6-1 on Saturday. Kamiji is, in fact, Montjane’s regular doubles partner and the player with whom she has shared her three Grand Slam victories.
Earlier in the day, Tezna Abrahams experienced the incredible Stade de France crowd for the first time as she competed in the T64 long jump final. As a T44 athlete, that was always going to be a challenge, with no separate event for athletes with a similar disability to hers. She nevertheless rose to that challenge, setting a new African record for her classification with a first-round leap of 4.46m that ultimately saw her finishing in 11th place.
Elsewhere, Elanza Jordaan’s individual BC3 boccia competition came to an end with a 5-0 defeat to Brazil’s Evani Calado in her third pool match. She’ll be back in action in the BC3 mixed pairs competition with Karabo Morapedi on 3 September.
Paris 2024 Paralympic Games Calendar Highlights for Sunday, 1 September 2024
Athletics
Women’s 1500m, T11 Round One (10.27am): Louzanne Coetzee
Women’s Discus, F64 final (10.52am): Yané van der Merwe
Women’s long jump, T37 final (8.41pm): Liezel Gouws
Triathlon
Women’s PTS4: Kirsty Weir – POSTPONED to Monday (water quality)
Original Copy: Karien Jonckheere, with editing by gsport
Main Photo Caption: Alani Ferreira provided two of the highlights for Team SA in Paris on Saturday, breaking the African record in the S12 400m freestyle twice in one day, at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games in France on Saturday, 31 August, 2024. Photo: Team SA
Photo 2 Caption: 17-year-old Danika Vyncke achieved a PB in the S13 400m freestyle in her first Paralympics on Saturday, finished in a time of 5:10.91. Photo: Team SA
Photo 3 Caption: Mariska Venter lost her opening singles against Japan’s second seed Yui Kamiji 6-2, 6-1 on Saturday, ending her 2024 Paralympic campaign. Photo: Team SA
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