I did it too!: US’ Hunter Woodhall celebrates with his wife Olympic women’s long jump champion Tara Davis-Woodhall after the victory ceremony for the men’s 400m T62 final. — AFP
HUNTER Woodhall, the double amputee sprinter who is one half of an Olympic-Paralympic power couple, charged to gold in the T62 400m on Friday.
American Woodhall, who is married to Olympic women’s long jump champion Tara Davis-Woodhall, timed 46.36sec to beat world record holder Johannes Floors of Germany by two metres and then ran straight into the arms of his wife who was trackside in the Stade de France.
It was a reversal of the roles when Davis-Woodhall won Olympic gold in the same stadium on Aug 8 and joyously embraced her watching husband.
“My first gold in a major championship and I couldn’t pick a better one,” Woodhall told reporters, with his beaming wife standing by his side, both wearing their respective gold medals.
“Tara has taught me a lot,” he said.
“Before the Olympics she was writing in her journal ‘I will be the Olympic champ, I am strong, I am fast’. I brought my journal with me and the past few days I’ve been writing in there ‘I will be Paralympic champion’ and that’s come true!”
In wheelchair tennis, Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid won gold for Britain in the men’s doubles final, beating Japanese pair Takuya Miki and Tokito Oda 6-2, 6-1 on the clay of Roland Garros.
Reid and Hewett have won 21 Grand Slam titles since starting to play together in 2016, but they were clear the Paralympic title was the one that they wanted the most – and in winning it, they became the first men’s pair to win the “golden slam”.
In other athletics action, double amputee Dutch sprinter Fleur Jong added the T64 women’s 100m gold to the long jump title she won earlier in these Games.
She led home Dutch teammates Kimberly Alkemade and Marlene van Gansewinkel for the first clean sweep by one country of any athletics event at the Paris Games.
“It’s the one I’ve been dreaming of,” Jong said.
“The long jump is my love, and the 100m is my biggest challenge, so I really wanted this one.”
Iran defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 3-1 in the sitting volleyball final for a second successive gold medal.
Iran have won eight Paralympic golds in sitting volleyball since their first at the 1988 Seoul Games.
In the final, Iran’s Morteza Mehrzadselakjani was the top scorer with 27 points. Mehrzadselakjani is the world’s second-tallest man at 8-foot-1 (2.46m). Even when he’s sitting, he’s more than 6 feet (1.8m) with his arms raised. — Agencies
