- Competitor Wetekam Secures Bronze and Silver Medals in Table Tennis Competition
Swimmers celebrate: Debutant Maurice Wetekam earns Germany's first pool medal at the La Défense Arena, placing third in the 100m breaststroke. The 18-year-old, born with a left arm impairment, exclaimed, "Wow, this is an unimaginable sensation."
Subsequently, table tennis duo Stephanie Grebe and Juliane Wolf nearly clinched gold, but fell short in the final 1:3 against China's Wenjuan Huang and Yucheng Jin. Nonetheless, they walked away with silver, leaving the Paris arena with cheerful grins. "We were almost there. With each passing minute, our satisfaction with silver grows. Today, we can celebrate," stated Wolf.
Their teammates Valentin Baus and Thomas Schmidberger also ensured at least a silver medal from Paris. They triumphed over Turkey's Abdullah Öztürk and Nesim Turan 3:2 in an exhilarating semi-final and will compete for gold on Saturday (14:00). "Another close call. So far, so good," commented Schmidberger. The German duo edged out their victory in five sets, as they did during the quarter-finals. "They're attempting to get under my skin or maybe entertain the crowd. Both ways, they're succeeding," chuckled coach Volker Ziegler.
The swimmers Tanja Scholz and Verena Schott finished the day without a medal. Schott ranked seventh in the 200m individual medley, improving her initial time by six seconds. "I'm the type who performs better as the race progresses," said the 35-year-old, whose training was severely hindered by a severe respiratory illness. However, she still has more chances to shine.
Scholz ended up in eighth place, but had to compete in a different classification due to a lack of competition in her own. "There are too few races in the smaller starting classes. More inclusion is required so everyone can compete," noted Schott.
"Not our day"
The women's wheelchair basketball team also had an unsatisfactory opening, losing 44:73 to the USA. "Perhaps today wasn't our day, but that's okay. We believe we can demonstrate our true potential in the next game," said 24-year-old Lisa Bergenthal, who criticized her team's decision-making and bad luck.
The sitting volleyball team, however, started off better, overcoming Brazil 3:0. "I didn't anticipate this outcome," admitted coach Christoph Herzog after the surprising win. "We struck at the right moments. It was a well-deserved victory."
Despite their strong performance in the semi-finals, the table tennis duo Juliane Wolf and Stephanie Grebe were unable to best China and claim gold, settling for silver instead. Later, during an interview, Wolf mentioned, "Even as a wolf, I'm learning to embrace the silver lining, and today, we can celebrate our second place finish."
