00:00As he stumbled and his blades caught on the track, he was flipped into the air like a ragdoll,
00:05landing face first on the abrasive track during the first heat of the World Championships.
00:09Malengo, who's gone down and tripped with around 10 metres to go,
00:13but Richard Whitehead has gone across and taken the win there.
00:17And just like that, South African runner Nathando Malengo's dreams of becoming the 2017 World Champion were gone.
00:23He got back up with a grimace of pain and defeat on his face, and he hopped towards the finish
00:28line.
00:28Malengo was completely embarrassed.
00:30He knew it was his own fault.
00:31He'd broken a key rule of racing.
00:33He'd taken his eyes off his own lane, distracted by his competitors instead of focusing on his own race.
00:39That momentary lapse had cost him a shot at the gold medal and a chance to call himself a World
00:44Champion.
00:45But Malengo wasn't about to let that one fatal mistake define him.
00:49He channeled his bitter disappointment and burning embarrassment into his competitive fuel.
00:53Before long, he returned to the track with a vengeance and began dominating the World Junior Championships.
00:59Gold medals started to pile up, and he even set a new 100 metre world record in the T42 class,
01:05a class that includes athletes with single leg and double leg limb differences,
01:09the same class of race he'd fallen in in 2017.
01:12However, despite these victories, the sting of that World Championship failure continued to linger.
01:17The Junior Championship wins were great, but he was still desperate to earn a major international title
01:23to erase the memory of that fall with an inarguable ultimate success.
01:27So, when the World Championships came around again in 2019,
01:31he hoped that this could be his chance for true redemption on the world stage.
01:35And this time, Malengo was competing to become the first ever World Champion in a 200 metre class of his
01:41own.
01:49Malengo lined up in the lane right next to Richard Whitehead,
01:52the same person who had won the World Championship heat, but he failed him.
01:56As the starting gun fired, Malengo powered off the blocks, and his focus was unbreakable.
02:00As the runners came around the bend, Malengo stayed in front.
02:03He could feel Whitehead pounding the track behind him,
02:06but as they reached the straight, and Whitehead was right there next to him,
02:09this time, Malengo kept his eyes on the finish line.
02:12Malengo coming through for South Africa!
02:14As he got into his rhythm, there was absolutely no stopping him.
02:18Whitehead gets the silver hit. Malengo gets the gold.
Comments