Media Release

Team Icexpress' FANTASTIC achievements at the 2010 Nedbank National Championships.

Three SA Records and Twenty-Eight Medals!

For the twelve Icexpress athletes competing at the 2010 Nedbank National Championships for the Physically Disabled in Port Elizabeth this weekend, it was raining gold! This group of arm and leg amputees from five different provinces working with Prosthetist and Team Manager Johan Snyders won 18 Gold, eight Silver, and two Bronze medals while breaking no less than three South African records during the three day competition.

Former Springbok cyclist, 58 year old Coert van Straaten, set the pace by breaking Oswald Kydd’s   SA record in the LC2 1000m Senior Track Cycling event on Saturday with a time of 1: 35.97 seconds. Van Straaten, competing for the first time as amputee athlete, continued to take Gold in the LC2 4000m Track Cycling and Silver in both LC2 Road Cycling events. Fellow Gauteng North and Icexpress team-mate, Dane Wilson, won Silver in the LC1 18.5km Time Trail.

Twenty year old Jean Joubert took it a step further by breaking a second SA record on Monday evening in the F44 Final Men’s Javelin event with a distance of 37.09 meters while team-mate Fred Furstenberg from Gauteng North took Silver. Joubert, now training at the well-known Maties Helderberg Sports Club for Disabled Athletes in Stellenbosch, beat Kwazulu-Natal team-mate Tyrone Pillay for the Gold in the F44 Discus event. Joubert also took the Gold in the F44 Shotput Men’s Final to beat current SA record holder Dewald Reynders into second place, and Pillay into third.

Paralympic T44 sprinter, Arnu Fourie from Western Province, won the Gold in both the 100m and 200m sprint events - running World Qualifying B times of 11.68 and 23.78 seconds respectively. On Monday evening, however, competing in a special showcase event that saw arm and leg amputee athletes running side by side, Fourie ran the 100m sprint in 11.31 seconds for another Gold medal, and a new SA record in this class.

Up-and-coming T42 sprinter, Berno Haarhoff from Gauteng North, missed the Qualifying Standard of 15.80 seconds for the 100m by 0.42 seconds. Haarhoff took Bronze in the F42 Shotput event, with Silver going to team-mate Derik Schutte and Gold to Central Gauteng’s Heugene Murray. Murray dominated the F42 field events by winning Gold in the Men’s Final Discus and Javelin events as well. Eighteen year old ‘Potchefstroom Sportsman of the Year’ nominee, Derik Schutte, took the Silver in each of these events.

Eastern Province Paralympic athlete, 27 year old David Roos, got close to breaking the SA F46 Long Jump record. His distance of 6.46 meters won him the Gold and Roos continued to take Gold in both the T46 100m and F46 Triple Jump events; securing World Qualifying B distances in both these events.

Icexpress’ two under-16 Boys competitors, 13 year old Muhammad Saib and 15 year old Junior Mavuso, did their bit to secure the last four gold medals for the team. Saib won Gold in his F57 Shotput event with a distance of 4.12 meters which is not far off the current SA record of 4.98 meters. Mavuso won the Gold in the under-16 F44 Shotput, Javelin, and Discus events bring the medals to a total of 28 for the Icexpress Team.

Due to an unfortunate flight delay SA’s most famous Paralympic sprinter, Oscar Pistorius, was unable to participate in the showcase Relay event – where the fastest runners from various competitive classes compete. Icexpress’ Derik Schutte, (an F42 Field athlete), stood in for Pistorius as part of the SA Team on the night. The Icexpress team, consisting of Fred Furtenberg, David Roos, Jean Joubert and Berno Haarhoff, finished fifth in this event.

All and all an outstanding achievement for a determined team of amputees led by Johan Snyders from Icexpress Progressive Prosthetics – with not a single member departing from the 2010 Nedbank National Championships without at least one medal! About this achievement, the future of disabled sport, and prosthetic technology in particular, Snyders says; “It is an honour to be involved with such a talented group of competitors. At Icexpress it is always our aim to harness every technological innovation to promote the continued growth and achievement of our amputee athletes, as well as that of South African Paralympic Sport”.