4400 Paralympians jostle for medals

[Music] all right let's talk the par Olympics now they took place well the opening ceremony took place uh last night out in Paris uh with some of our athletes team South Africa also uh taking part there will'll be hoping for more medals than the seven that they came back with out in Tokyo Let's uh join now our reporter out in Paris Karen J Yong who will be talking to us for a couple of days Karen let's talk about that uh opening ceremony how was it for you hi Benji yes it was it was an impressive opening ceremony I think the Olympic opening ceremony was a bit of a polarizing one there were many differing opinions on that one but I think last night's par Olympic opening was generally held as as a big success um the focus was very much on the athletes rather than anything else and I think that's that's what it's all about and and we had our own Musa M there our UT dancer who was played a really big role which was really great to see as well made us very proud yeah and and South Africans have uh been uh performing uh already and we have uh Sean Anderson in archery what uh took place there what would you say about his performance where did he uh finish yes so Anderson competed in the rankings round for the W1 archery this morning which just kind of places the athletes in in their ranking order to determine who plays who in the next round he finished ninth overall I think he he probably was hoping for a little higher up we talked to him afterwards but he was satisfied with his morning's work and it means he plays the eighth ranked um archer in the next round he competes against the eighth place so he was happy with that and that'll take place on Sunday and and there's also Nathan hris that uh who came fourth in the 100 meters uh butterfly would you say um I mean South Africa has always performed a lot better in the aquatics uh Ken than than uh the other sporting codes at either the Olympics or Paralympics are we still in with a chance to get something in in in the pool uh well Nathan will have the first chance to get a medal for team South Africa tonight because his final is tonight the 100 meter butterfly isn't his his main event he's gone in as the join sixth fastest overall into that final of eight swimmers so I wouldn't say this one is likely to be the one he could win a medal in I think that'll come later in the week um and I think it's more on the Athletics Jack where we going to get our medals this time round um so i' I'd be focused on on them instead of the swimmers but you never know and there are swimmers who are certainly capable of of picking up a medal what do we looking forward to in uh kab is also in action today yes that's right and about seven minutes time um that's in the botcher um it's an interesting sport for those who haven't seen it it's quite similar to balls um and played mostly by athletes with cerebel py um who are in in Wheelchairs and he's got his first round um match now and also lza y yon later as well this is the first time South Africa South Africa's been represented in bota at the par Olympics so an historic afternoon one thing about the Olympics and the par Olympics Kar they always you know show you new sporting cods things you never knew existed and you always feel like surely I could have done this surely there's something I could have been uh doing to represent the country but I spoke about the seven medals that the team or team South Africa returned from uh Japan from Tokyo uh just a few years ago are we able to S surpass that are we able to get to double figures this time around at the very least I think that's a tough one we've got a very small team here only 32 athletes so I think surpassing that seven medal Mark is going to be a big ask um we were adding it up earlier I I predicted six an optimistic six um some of my colleagues are saying five um so let's hope you never know sometimes people produce an amazing performance on the day and it gets them there um but yeah we'll we'll have to see how that goes how our predictions go and and you mentioned perhaps maybe track and field might be where we're looking at to say this is where we could pick up something anyone specifically that you're looking at yes our flag bearer from the opening ceremony last night in Pongo is a big medal hopeful he's a double world champion in the 100 meters um in the t44 and he's also so he's running 100 200 and doing the long jump so he's definitely a medal Prospect we've got Simon Krueger in The discus she's a world record holder in that event got petto maot he's he won a silver medal at the world championship you've got Luzan CIA who picked up two medals at the last Olympics quite a few in the check and field we can look out for and Karen I don't know if it's just my uh observation or what but we've always done better uh at at the par Olympics as as South Africa than we have at the Olympic Games is there any particular reason for this what what are you what are you credited to tough one to answer I I I can't say I know the answer to that one um yeah a tricky one I know the team management sasco have said the Olympic team doubled their Tally from Tokyo where we got three and we got six this time around so they've said the same for the par Olympic team got seven in Tokyo 14 this time around but I think that that is a little optimistic um so yeah it's a tough one to predict okay Karen we'll be chatting to you every single day of the par Olympic Games for the next couple of weeks uh to try and catch up with Team South Africa what's happening there and any other uh breaking news stories that you might be able to bring us here at home in South Africa