Matthews misses medals for first time in 24 years

Published on Saturday 25 September 2004 00:23

AFTER seven Paralympics and eight gold medals, Bob Matthews missed out on a podium finish for the first time in 24 years at the Athens Games last night - and then suggested he may carry on until Beijing in 2008.

The 43-year-old blind distance runner, who missed out on the medals in the 10,000m, finished sixth in the T11 5,000m with Kenyan Henry Wanyoike setting a new world record time of 15 minutes 11.07 seconds.

It was the first time that Matthews has left a Paralympics empty-handed since 1980, and was a massive disappointment to the legendary Paralympian, who tragically lost his wife last year.

"I’m disappointed not to have got a medal, but I’m pleased with the way I fought and I think I can come back as a stronger athlete next year if I want it enough and if I’ve got the guide runners," said Matthews.

"I really can’t say about Beijing. When you come here you think ’why am I doing this, putting myself through all this trauma’, but you get in a race like this, a very honest race and you think this is why I do it."

Matthews’ disappointment came on a relatively low-key day for Team GB, with only two gold medals won and 11 medals in total.

Great Britain remain second in the medals table behind China with 24 golds and 62 medals overall.

Gareth Duke was the man with the golden touch in the swimming pool in one of the most exciting races of the evening, while Peter Norfolk won Team GB’s first Paralympic tennis medal ever when he struck gold in the quad event with a straight sets win over David Wagner of the USA 6-3, 6-2.

Duke set a new Paralympic record to clinch gold on his Games debut, touching the wall just ahead of American Travis Mohr by three one hundredths of a second in a time of one minute 29.93 seconds.

"I really didn’t think I could do that. It’ll take me a few weeks to wipe the smile from my face," Duke said.

Nyree Lewis got the swimmers on the medal trail earlier by adding another silver medal to the gold and silver she has already collected, while Liz Johnson took silver in the SB6 100m breaststroke behind Australia’s Sarah Bowen, who set a new world record.

Other silver medallists in swimming were James Crisp, Robert Welbourn and the women’s 4x50m freestyle relay team, with bronze medals coming from Dervis Konuralp in the SM13 200m individual medley, and the men’s 4x50m freestyle relay.

David Gale in the discus was another bronze medal winner for Team GB, while Nicola Tustain continued the equestrian team’s success by clinching her second bronze of the Games in the grade II freestyle.

Tanni Grey-Thompson, fresh from her 100m triumph, is back in action today in the 400m heats, while Danny Crates will bid for gold after cruising into the final of the T46 800m.

Cyclist Darren Kenny, already an Athens double gold medallist, is on course for another medal in the CP3 road race/time trial.

Kenny is lying in the silver-medal position after he finished second, 35 seconds behind Spain’s Javier Otxoa in the road race yesterday, with the second part of the event - the time trial - still to come on Monday.

Elsewhere, the wheelchair rugby team lost 39-35 to New Zealand in the semi-finals but are still in with a crack at bronze in the third-place play-off today in which they face the USA.

In the Boccia preliminaries Britain’s Susie Robinson lost to Joao Paulo Fernandes of Portugal.