PARALYMPICS 2024: 'I think mentally now for the Paralympics I’m just going to enjoy it' - Para-athlete Yane van der Merwe
At the 2024 World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Dubai, UAE she won a silver medal and broke the African record with a throw of 31.88-meter.
Para-athlete Yane van der Merwe will represent South Africa at the 2024 Paralympics in archery. Picture: Jacques Nelles/ Eyewitness News.
JOHANNESBURG - University of Johannesburg student-athlete Yane van der Merwe is headed to her first Paralympic Games.
“I think mentally now for the Paralympics I’m just going to enjoy it,” said Van der Merwe.
The student-athlete made her first mark as a para-athlete at the age of 17 when she broke the under-18 javelin record at the SA Championships for the physically disabled at the Westbourne Oval in Port Elizabeth.
“My classification is F44 meaning lower limb deficiency. So I was born with a club foot on my right so I have no muscle or movement in my right ankle.”
The athlete from Trichardt in Mpumalanga has competed at the World Para Athletics Junior Championships in Switzerland, placing third in the javelin U20, and the IWAS 2017 competition in Portugal, where she placed first in javelin, third in shotput U18 and fourth in discus in the open class category.
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“I love sport and cannot sit still. Being very active I participated in everything. I end up loving field events the most, only moving my focus to discus at the end of 2019. I love every second of it. During competition season, like I am in now, I gym three times a week and work on technique five times a week - gym for about 90 minutes and throw for around 90 minutes” she said to Eyewitness News.
Van der Merwe competed at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games where she finished fifth.
At the 2024 World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Dubai, UAE she won a silver medal and broke the African record with a throw of 31.88-meter.
She received several awards, including the 2021 Sportswoman of the Year with a Disability Award (twice) and silver in the 2022 UJ Sportswoman of the Year division.
You can catch Yane's throw on 1 September at 10:00. For a detailed breakdown of more Paralympic Games events, click here.