“A magical moment”: Tanja Scholz and Verena Schott gave the German para-swimmers a golden Friday (04.08.2023) at the World Championships in Manchester.
Scholz won the 50 m freestyle in the S4 starting class and won her third title in England. Schott had previously won the race over 100 m breaststroke in the S4 starting class.
The 39-year-old Scholz won in 38.90 seconds, clearly ahead of the Brazilian Patricia Pereira dos Santos (40.34). She said: “It’s a magical moment. I have no idea how I did it, I really don’t know.”
After a riding accident in 2020, Scholz is incompletely paraplegic. In the case of incomplete paraplegia, the nerves are not completely severed, but are severely damaged.
The athlete had previously won gold in the 100m freestyle and 150m individual medley, as well as silver in the 50m breaststroke. At her World Cup premiere in 2022, she had already excelled with three gold and two silver medals.
Schott triumphs again
Schott was also unbeatable. Two days after silver in the 200m individual medley, the three-time medalist from Tokyo won with a time of 1:43.64 minutes ahead of Britain’s Grace Harvey (1:45.39). Gina Böttcher finished fifth, and Taliso Engel was fourth in the S13 class over 50 m freestyle.
“I can not believe it and describe it in words,” said Schott. “I didn’t see anyone until the turn, I just thought: ‘Go on, go on, go’. And I knew that the second 50 meters are always mine.”
Already 15 medals for the DBS
The German Disabled Sports Association (DBS) has so far won 15 medals in Manchester. At the last World Championships in Madeira last year, the German swimmers won 14 medals (4x gold, 6x silver, 4x bronze). A total of twelve athletes will start for the DBS in Manchester by Sunday.