Paralympics: Three Kiwi athletes qualify for finals

By GREG ANSLEY

SYDNEY - New Zealand athletes advanced to medal rounds on the track in a day of high drama at the Paralympic Games yesterday.

Silver medallist 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.

Late last night (NZ time) Te Awamutu's John Dowell, who has already won one gold and one silver medal, was to complete the F44 pentathlon.

And 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.

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 rerun of the women's T54 800m wheelchair race that on Sunday ended Australian superstar Lousie Sauvage's eight-year unbroken run, 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, Canadian Chantal Petitclerc, in a re-run tomorrow.

At Olympic Stadium, 22-year-old cerebral palsy athlete 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 Algerian 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 1s separated a field in which Canadian Jeff Adams, of Canada, soared past his Paralympic record of 1m 39.17s to win gold.

Foulsham finished sixth but also beat the Paralympic record, coming home just 0.78s behind Adams. Yesterday Foulsham qualified eighth in the 5000m semifinal with a time of 10m 38.41s.

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