‘Supa Piet’ Du Preez wins silver at Para-cycling World Championships

JOHANNESBURG - Paralympian Pieter du Preez, affectionately known as “Supa Piet,” claimed silver in the men’s H1 time trial at the UCI Cycling World Championships in Ronse, Belgium.

'Supa Piet' competes in the H1 para-cycling category, reserved for athletes with highly affected movement in the trunk, legs, and hands.

Italy’s Fabrizio Cornegliani claimed the gold medal, while the Czech Republic’s Patrik Jahoda took bronze.

“Always special to win a medal for your country at a World Championships - this time a proudly silver for South Africa in the time trial today. Some special moments, not sure how many of these I have left with my deteriorating eyesight, so I will enjoy every moment. Road race on Saturday, let’s go,” Du Preez posted on his social media.

The Deloitte South Africa actuarial analyst, in a previous interview with Eyewitness News, explained: “I’m losing my eyesight, but I was born with that, so it’s a degenerative eye disease called Choroideremia. We were diagnosed, me and my older brother, when I was in matric.”

Choroideremia is an inherited disease that causes progressive vision loss due to the degeneration of cell layers in the retina.

“Strangely, I call it my superpower, because already, from then, my mindset around it was that one day I know I’m going to be completely blind, so I need to use my eyes to the best of my ability, for what I need them for, for as long as I can. So for me, it was a motivator,” he said.

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Meanwhile, veteran Paralympian Ernst van Dyk finished sixth in the H5 class at the World Championships.

Van Dyk first represented South Africa at the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics in swimming and wheelchair events. At the 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games, he won a bronze medal in the 400m. In Athens in 2004, he secured two silvers in the 800m and 1,500m, as well as a bronze in the 5,000m. At the 2008 Beijing Games, he struck gold in the hand-cycling marathon and earned bronze in the wheelchair marathon.