Instead of encountering gold, shepherds encounter the extraordinary GAU.
The anticipation for Germany's initial gold medal in Paris prolongs. Leon Schäfer failed to lift the curse as well. He came up short by 75 centimeters. Leon Schäfer eagerly motivated the crowd at the immense Stade de France, frequently conversed with his trainer, yet couldn't avert the catastrophe. He was anticipated to put an end to Germany's gold medal famine on the third day of the Paralympics in Paris, yet matters turned out differently.
Schäfer departed the stadium without a medal. In the T63 category for above-knee amputees, the 27-year-old landed at 6.93 meters, merely placing fourth. He was 75 centimeters short of the coveted triumph, which was claimed by Joel de Jong, who improved his world record by one centimeter. Bronze was eight centimeters away. In Tokyo, Schäfer secured silver in long jump and bronze in 100m despite complications with his prosthesis.
Silver in Table Tennis
Germany's medal hunt continued in various domains. In table tennis, the pair Valentin Baus and Thomas Schmidberger captured silver in the MD8 class, while Maike Hausberger in cycling and Mira Jeanne Maack in swimming bagged bronze medals for the German Disabled Sports Association (DBS), elevating their count to two silvers and three bronzes.
Baus and Schmidberger succumbed to the Chinese duo Cao Ningning and Feng Panfeng 0:3 (9:11, 5:11, 5:11) in merely 25 minutes. "We didn't deliver the performance we had planned," said Schmidberger. "Against such an opponent, that's not enough."
Bronze in the Velodrome: "The color didn't matter"
The ambiance was contrasting in the vivacious Velodrome Nationale. Hausberger, 29, gleefully displayed her first Paralympic medal with a wide grin and a raised fist, embracing each member of her coaching team. She clinched bronze in the time trial over 500m in the C1 to C3 class, setting a personal best of 38.358 seconds. "I'm overwhelmed, it's incredible," she said. "Securing that first medal, the color didn't matter."
Maack's bronze was the greatest shock. The 20-year-old from Berlin set a German record of 1:18.36 minutes in the S8 class 100m breaststroke final, finishing behind merely Alice Tai from Britain (1:09.96) and Russia's Victoria Ishchiulova (1:14.97). "I accomplished my goal, what I've been training for three years," she said, elated.
Meanwhile, Merle Menje, the world silver medalist, failed to secure a medal in athletics, ending seventh in the 5000m race. In wheelchair tennis, Katharina Krüger fell 1:6, 0:6 to top seed Dutch player Diede de Groot in just 48 minutes.
Despite Leon Schäfer's efforts, he missed out on the gold in the Paralympics, finishing fourth in the T63 long jump category. In a contrasting turn of events, Germany's Maike Hausberger secured a bronze medal in the Velodrome Nationale, triumphing in the C1 to C3 class time trial with a personal best.
