Paralympics: Day of drama as athlete falls on track

By GREG ANSLEY

SYDNEY - New Zealand gold and silver medallist John Dowell collapsed on the track in the final event of the F44 pentathlon in a day of high drama at the Paralympic Games yesterday.

Dowell, who was placed fourth in the pentathlon before the 400m event, fell about halfway through the race, and knelt for several minutes before limping from the track.

The Hamilton amputee, one of the New Zealand team's track stars, had earlier won gold in the javelin and silver in the shot put. He has still to compete in the discus. Late last night it was not known if he was injured.

In other events, Matt Slade beat the reigning Paralympic champion with the fastest time in the T37 400m semifinal, Rotorua's Tanya Bradley qualified for the T20 200m final, and wheelchair racer Gavin Foulsham won a place in the gruelling T54 5000m medal event.

Team-mate Ben Lucas failed to make the final after having to race for a second time following a crash and the disqualification of a leading Australian contender.

Cerebral palsy athlete Ross Flood narrowly missed bronze in boccia in a playoff against Spain's Jesus Fraile.

Off the field, European Paralympic officials announced a new campaign against drugs following confirmation that two more powerlifters have been expelled from the Games, bringing the total to six - just four fewer than the figure that scandalised the Olympics.

New Zealand manager Jim Tunnicliffe said the six powerlifters were in a small, stupid minority.

He said he was given little detail about the lifters and was not even sure if any were from the over-100kg class in which Auckland's George Taamaru competes on Saturday.

Ireland's Tom Leahy moved from fourth to bronze in the F51 discus event after winner Robert Jachimowicz was also expelled for failing to turn up for a reassessment of his disability, ordered after a protest that gave British athlete Stephen Miller the bronze.

And the International Court of Arbitration for Sport heard an appeal from Canada against the re-run of the women's T54 800m wheelchair race that on Sunday ended Australian superstar Lousie Sauvage's eight-year unbroken run of victories and her hopes of a record five golds.

The re-race was called after a protest from Japan, whose finalist was involved in a spectacular crash in the final straight.

Unless the appeal is upheld, Sauvage will have another chance to take the gold from long-time rival and perpetual runner-up Chantal Petitclerc, of Canada, in a rerun tomorrow.

At the Olympic Stadium, 22-year-old cerebral palsy athlete Matthew Slade, of Christchurch, blitzed the T37 400m with a season's best time of 56.86s, pushing the Paralympic record of 56.15s set by Algeria's Mohamed Allek at Atlanta.

Allek finished the semifinal 0.25s behind Slade, who won silver in the T37 200m on Sunday.

Gavin Foulsham, a lower-limb amputee from Auckland, went into yesterday's T54 5000m semifinal after a hair's-breadth failure to reach the medals table late on Monday night in the 800m event.

Less than a second separated a field in which Canadian Jeff Adams soared past his Paralympic record of 1m 39.17s to win gold.

Foulsham was sixth, but also beat the Paralympic record, finishing just 0.78s behind Adams and 0.28s behind bronze medallist Saul Mendoza, of Mexico.

Yesterday, Foulsham qualified eighth in the 5000m semifinal with a time of 10m 38.41s, trailing leader Prawat Wahoram, of Thailand, by 1.78s. Lucas was forced to re-race his semifinal when Australian John MacLean was disqualified for causing a crash involving two other racers. Lucas finished seventh in his heat.

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