PARALYMPICS 2024: Blind Judoka Ndyebo Lamani hopes to medal and make SA proud

JOHANNESBURG – A visually impaired judo athlete from the Eastern Cape has achieved his Paralympic dream.

Ndyebo Lamani will represent South Africa in the J1 73kg category in judo at the Paris Games on Friday.

Lamani was born with a visual impairment, which has gotten progressively worse.

"In judo, the are two classifications J1 and J2. I fight in the J1 classification and my fighting partner, Jacques Joubert, is a J2. This means that he has 5% vision and I have 2% vision, so I’m almost completely blind," said Lamani to Eyewitness News.

In the J1 classification, an athlete's vision impairment must result in a visual acuity of less than or equal to LogMAR 2.6 in binocular vision.

Lamani used to compete in the J2 category but his eyesight has since deteriorated.

"About three years ago, my condition got worse and I was reclassified from a J2 (visually impaired) to a J1 (blind). There are regular tests done to see whether someone needs to be reclassified."

Lamani told Eyewitness News that he started judo in 2010, at the Khanyisa School for the Blind in Port Elizabeth.

"I come from rural areas, so there is no sport like this in the rural areas. They have rugby, soccer and netball, so when I was in blind school, they came and introduced this sport. I told myself I must join this sport and then I fell in love with it," said Lamani.

The 32-year-old was born in the rural town of Peddie in the Eastern Cape and missed out on the Tokyo Paralympics due to COVID.

"This is my first Paralympics because the last Paralympics (Tokyo), I didn't qualify because I had COVID-19. I missed two competitions, so I couldn't be eligible," said Lamani.

The athlete said that he hoped to medal and make his country proud. He further told Eyewitness News that he was not worried about his competitors as he had faced them before in competitions.

"I’m not really worried about any of the athletes at the Paralympics Games because most of them, I used to fight with them. I just have to work on the technical things on my side to prepare myself for Germany and Brazil, as I’ve never faced them. The rest I’ve fought and beaten before."

Lamani is a level one black belt and participated in his first international tournament in 2011 and took home a bronze medal.

He’s trained by Sondisa Magajana in the Eastern Cape and in Johannesburg by Dirk Crafford, who is currently in Paris with him.

"I want to take this opportunity to thank my coach. We have been on this journey together for quite a long time. Coach Dirk has been with me through it all, it’s not easy to get to international competitions and he has gone the extra mile for me, so thank you, Coach," he said.

• PARALYMPICS 2024: Para-cyclist Pieter du Preez wins bronze, SA's third medal

• PARALYMPICS 2024: 'Athletics is a tool I use to represent God' - Para-athlete Liezel Gouws