Kolly wins Switzerland’s fifth paralympic gold

Urs Kolly has followed up his gold medal in the long jump with the gold in the pentathlon to further increase an impressive haul of Swiss medals at the Sydney Paralympics.

Kolly’s two gold medals saw him match his tally from the 1996 Atlanta games four years ago. His performance in Tuesday’s pentathlon was his most impressive yet however.

Having led from the beginning the amputee from Fribourg finished the final discipline with 4,966 points – a new Paralympic record. “What pleased me most,” he said afterwards, “was that I ran the final 400 metres race in a new personal best time.”

Lucerne’s Lukas Christen completed another good day for the Swiss athletes, taking silver in the 100 metres final. Christen, who is amputated at the thigh, recorded a new European record time of 12.99 seconds. He was beaten only by Canada’s Earle Connor who broke the world record with a time of 12.61 seconds.

Tuesday’s two successes lifted the Swiss medal total to 11 (five gold, two silver and four bronze).

swissinfo with agencies