THE CANADIAN PRESS
BEIJING — Diane Roy’s bid to reclaim the gold medal she thought she had already won earlier in the week came up a wheel length short Friday.
The Canadian wheelchair racer from Hatley, Que., was just beaten at the finish line in the 5,000 metres at the Beijing Paralympics.
American Amanda McGrory won the race, finishing one 1/100ths of a second ahead of Roy at the National Stadium.
Even though Roy will take home silver she still considers herself the champion.
"I have to think I won the gold Monday night and won a silver this morning," said Roy. "I will not forget I won a gold.
"I have to keep it in my mind I did it. Now it’s a silver and I have to be happy about this medal."
Roy won the race Monday night, and had collected her gold in a medal ceremony, before the International Paralympic Committee overturned the results because of a chaotic crash and an official who ran onto the track. They rescheduled the race for Friday.
At the time Roy called the decision "unjust for a lot of people."
The IPC didn’t reclaim Roy’s medal until Thursday.
"For sure I am not happy because I didn’t win," said Roy, 37, of Hatley, Que. "I lost something."
Roy was still angry over having to race again.
"Even if I had won this morning I think it’s really not fair," she said.
McGrory, the world record holder in the 5,000 metres, won in 12 minutes, 29.07 seconds. Roy was timed in 12:29.08.
Shelly Woods of Great Britain was third in 12:29.32.
Canada’s Michelle Stilwell, meanwhile, captured her second Paralympic Games gold medal Thursday, but her first as a wheelchair racer.
Stilwell, from Nanoose Bay, B.C., a gold medallist in wheelchair basketball in 2000 in Sydney, raced to gold in the 200-metre T52 classification race in a Paralympic record time of 36.18 seconds.
"I’ve always gone with `what your mind believes your body will achieve,’ and today it all came together," Stilwell said after her race. "I was nervous because I was competing against Tomomi Yamaki, a rising star from Japan. I had a great start and a strong push. I focused on the process and in the end, I got the result."
Yamaki won the silver in 37.44 while Pia Schmid of Switzerland took bronze in 39.95.
The podium performance was Canada’s third gold medal and fourth overall on the track in Beijing.
Swimmer Stephanie Dixon of Victoria earned her second medal of the Games, finishing second to Natalie du Toit in the SM9 200 metres.
Her silver medal boosted Canada’s total to 19 — seven gold, four silver and eight bronze.
China leads the medal standings with 33 gold, 37 silver and 26 bronze for 96 in all.
Dixon finished more than nine seconds behind the South African swimming machine who picked up her third gold of the Paralympics after competing at the Olympic Games.
"To me the medals are awesome but it all comes down to what you had to do to get them and what kind of courage you had to pull out of yourself," said Dixon, who earlier won a bronze in the 100-metre freestyle.
"If every single time there is someone right there fighting you, then you’re going to have to pull a little bit extra strength, a little extra courage. When you get to show those things, for sure it means a whole lot more."
Canada won two other medals in the pool Thursday. Vancouver’s Donovan Tildesley, in the 400-metre freestyle for S11, and Montreal’s Benoit Huot, in the 200-metre individual medley SM10, both collected bronze medals.
Dixon, 24, has seen a huge increase in competition in Paralympic swimming since her first Games in 2000 when she collected five gold medals and two silvers. In 2004 in Athens, she won five silvers and beat du Toit in the 100-metre backstroke.
"The last two Games I’ve watched how the Paralympics have expanded and created more depth," said Dixon, who was born without a right leg and hip. "Each race means so much more when you have a whole bunch of people to race neck-and-neck against.
"Back in Sydney (in 2000), our class wasn’t as powerful as it is now. Now everybody has to fight for every single last hundreds of a second."
Du Toit, 24, praised Dixon’s competitive spirit.
"Before I came along she was winning all the gold medals," said du Toit, who lost her left leg in a 2001 motorbike accident. "She’s still there, she is still hanging on. She’s taking off so many seconds of her time. She really does keep me going."
Du Toit won the 200 IM in two minutes 27.83 seconds, shaving 2.09 seconds off her own world record.
Dixon was second in 2:37.54, which still knocked three seconds off her personal best time. Germany’s Louise Watkin was third in 2:40.31.
Tildesley, the Canadian flag-bearer at the opening ceremonies, agreed it’s getting harder to win a medal.
"The world is stepping it up," he said. "It’s great to see Paralympic sport being brought to another level. I think this is a wake-up call for the general public that the Paralympics are no longer the black sheep of the family, the long-distance second cousin to the Olympics."
Spain’s Enhamed Enhamed won the 400 free in 4:38.32 with China’s Yang Bozun taking the silver in 4:43.29. Tildesley’s time was 4:49.45.
Huot picked up his second bronze medal of the Paralympics in 2:15.22. He finished third earlier this week in the 100-metre freestyle and was fourth in the 100-metre butterfly.
.Australia’s Rick Pendleton won the 200 IM in 2:12.78, smashing Huot’s world record by 1.79 seconds. Brazil’s Andre Brasil was second in 2:14.20.
Huot, who won five gold medals in Athens and set three world records, didn’t speak to print reporters after his race. Officials said he wasn’t feeling well but he did stop for two television interviews.
Du Toit competed in the 10-kilometre swim during the Olympic Games, finishing 16th. She said it’s difficult to compare her losing a leg to Dixon growing up missing a limb.
"She’s been like that since birth, yet she’s had that drive," said du Toit. "I would never know if it was better being born like that.
"For her, it’s just going out and being the best she can be."
In finals at the Bird’s Nest stadium, Brent Lakatos of Dorval, Que., was fifth in the men’s T53 400-metre wheelchair race and Josh Cassidy of Oakville, Ont., was 10th in the men’s T54 5,000-metre wheelchair race.
`’I equalled my personal best time so I’m satisfied," said Lakatos. `’I had trouble on the last turn otherwise I would have gone faster."
Chantal Petitclerc of Montreal and Roy won their heats to advance to the final of the T54 400 metres, while Jessica Matassa of Oldcastle, Ont., was third in her heat to also move on.
Dean Bergeron of Quebec City and Andre Beaudoin of Montreal both advanced to the final of the T42 400 metres, while Jean-Paul Compaore of Sherbrooke, Que., moved onto the semifinals in the T54 800.
"I was very confident," Compaore said. "I had a good start; I didn’t push too hard. When I got in the third position, I knew I could relax and stay focused to reach the semi-final."
Ilana Duff of Saskatoon reached the final in the women’s T53 100-metre sprint finishing fourth in her heat.
