A Paralympian who believes the chair he was supposed to use in a race had been deliberately damaged in an act of sabotage, has managed to win gold despite the unexpected obstacle.
As reported by 7News.com.au, Belgian athlete Peter Genyn emerged victorious in the men's T51 100m final at the Tokyo Paralympics, having finished the race in a record time of 20.33 seconds.
The outlet reports that the 44-year-old gold medal winner had discovered a flat tire and then later a further three flat tires as well as other forms of damage when he arrived for his warm-up on Friday, September 3.
Using no more than duct-tape, he and several other individuals "fixed" the chair that he ended up using in the T51 100m final.
Genyn was reported as saying: "We used parts from different chairs and a lot of duct tape. We had just arrived 45 minutes before the warm-up and we had three flat tires and a broken compensator. Everybody did everything they could to help, including the Dutch team."
He added: "We changed the spare wheels. Thankfully I’m a maniac about my equipment and I had lots of spares. And I got my revenge."
Genyn had managed to speed ahead of Finland's Toni Piispanen - who had previously beaten him in the 200m race - in spite of the damage done to his chair.
In an interview with Belgian network Sporza, he referred to it as "pure sabotage".
"Someone must have been very scared," he said. "It was terrible, I really thought it was over. But I’m glad I was able to show that they can’t even win this way. You have to be a loser to do something like that."
Genyn also shared his gratitude to his coach and staff at wheelchair company Ottobock, a long-time supplier to Paralympians.
He added: "It was an awesome team - the coach, the service team from Ottobock. Everybody did everything to get the chair ready."
The athlete then proceeded to hit out at the mystery person who supposedly broke his chair, saying: "I guess I showed who can push the chair and who can’t."
