Paralympics: Markus Rehm wins third consecutive gold in long jump

"The time is right; these are my Games. These are the Paralympic Games, I am a Paralympic athlete. That's the way it is, that's the way it will stay, and that's good," said Markus Rehm, the man known as the "Blade Jumper" in a recent interview with the German news agency SID.

On Wednesday, Germany's Rehm made good on those words, winning gold in the long jump for the third time in a row.

He jumped 8.18 metres in the rain, winning by 79 centimeters ahead of France's Dimitri Pavade.

Since his international debut at the 2011 World Championships, Rehm has won gold in the long jump at every Paralympics, Worlds and European Championships.

Failed Olympic bid

This gold medal may be even a bit more special than the previous two, coming just weeks after he saw his Olympic dream die. The German Olympic Sports Confederation had included him on its list of athletes to compete in the Summer Games, despite controversy over the question as to whether the carbon-fiber-bladed prosthesis on his amputated right leg gave him an unfair advantage. However, World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) rejected his participation.

The 33-year-old Rehm appealed the World Athletics decision to the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the highest global authority in sporting disputes. However, just days before the Olympics were due to open in July, the CAS upheld the decision of the global athletics governing body.

Weeks later, Rehm is still waiting for the CAS to publish its reasoning behind the verdict, something that caused him "sleepless nights and sapped a lot of energy" in the weeks leading up to Wednesday's win.

Rehm's exclusion from the Olympics came despite the fact that he had more than proven himself capable of competing on par with his non-physically challenged counterparts. This past June, Rehm bettered his para world record in the long jump to 8.62 meters, although he came up well short of that mark on Wednesday. By comparison, Miltiadis Tentoglou won gold at this summer's Olympics with a jump of 8.41 meters.

Despite Wednesday's performance having been well off his own record, Rehm was happy with the gold medal.

"My goal was to defend the title, and I did that," Rehm told German public broadcaster ZDF: "That's why I have a big grin under my mask. But clearly: I would have liked a better distance."

Still, this gold medal may go some way towards easing the frustration of his Olympic exclusion.

Germany news

Badminton made its debut at the Paralympic and Germany's No. 3 seed Valeska Knoblauch won the first ever match at the games, breezing past her fellow Germany and training partner Elke Rongen 21-7, 21-8 in the women's WH1 category.

"It feels pretty amazing," said Knoblauch, who also will go down as the player who hit the very first badminton serve in the Paralympics. "I was very nervous. It's so different to other tournaments."

Gold medals

Oksana Masters won her second gold medal of the Tokyo Games on Wednesday, bringing her career total to four gold and 10 medals overall in both summer and winter events.

The American won the women's hand-cycle road race to go with a victory on Tuesday in the time trial. She could win one more gold in Tokyo in the relay event on Thursday.

"I can't believe it,'' Masters said. "I've never won a road race in my life and I never thought I would ever win a road race in my life."

Sam Grewe of the United States gold in the high jump in the T64 class with a jump of 1.88 meters, which was just under the world record he holds for the class at 1.90. He beat silver medalist Mariyappan Thangavelu of India, who won gold five years ago in Rio de Janeiro. Grewe settled for silver last time. Grewe, who jumps with a prosthetic blade, cleared the winning height on his final jump of three after his Indian rival missed all three attempts.

News from Tokyo

Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli of Malaysia has been stripped of his gold medal and world record – for showing up late for the shot put. Three athletes, including Zolkefli, were not in the call room at the allotted time.

Organizers justified the fact that all three were nevertheless allowed to start by saying that not all the information was available, according to an IPC spokesman.

The athletes said they had not heard the announcement and that it was made in a language they could not understand. But as other athletes were on time, this was not deemed enough of an excuse.

Ukrainian Maksym Koval was instead awarded the victory in the F20 class.

Source: DW

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