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"description": "Daily Maverick is an independent online news publication and weekly print newspaper in South Africa.\r\n\r\nIt is known for breaking some of the defining stories of South Africa in the past decade, including the Marikana Massacre, in which the South African Police Service killed 34 miners in August 2012.\r\n\r\nIt also investigated the Gupta Leaks, which won the 2019 Global Shining Light Award.\r\n\r\nThat investigation was credited with exposing the Indian-born Gupta family and former President Jacob Zuma for their role in the systemic political corruption referred to as state capture.\r\n\r\nIn 2018, co-founder and editor-in-chief Branislav ‘Branko’ Brkic was awarded the country’s prestigious Nat Nakasa Award, recognised for initiating the investigative collaboration after receiving the hard drive that included the email tranche.\r\n\r\nIn 2021, co-founder and CEO Styli Charalambous also received the award.\r\n\r\nDaily Maverick covers the latest political and news developments in South Africa with breaking news updates, analysis, opinions and more.",
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"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Born in Chatsworth, growing up in Klaarwater, studying in Cape Town, working in Johannesburg, making his Paralympic debut in Rio de Janeiro, being crowned world champion in both Paris and Kobe, Mpumelelo Mhlongo has become a true citizen of the world.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fortunately, he’s ours, South African and is one of two flagbearers for the country when the 2024 Paralympics burst into life on Wednesday night.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 30-year-old is taking part in his third Paralympics and this time he has very real prospects of showing that all that glitters is gold. He has a dazzling CV and having competed in the last Paralympics in Tokyo in the T64 category, where he finished fifth in all of the 100m, 200m and long jump, he’s back in the T44’s where it all started.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2336996\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1-7-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"mhlongo gold paris\" width=\"1847\" height=\"2560\" /> <em>Mpumelelo Mhlongo trains at the Stade D’Athletisme Philippides at Creps in Montpellier, France, ahead of the upcoming Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. (Photo: Roger Sedres / TeamSA)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For those who are looking for an explanation as to what the T44 classification is, it is this: the para-athlete must have unaffected knee joints allowing for controlled power delivery but they must focus harder to sense and grip the track surface while maintaining good running posture and symmetry.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Which brings us to the 30-year-old. In introducing himself, he told SuperSport TV: “My Instagram handle is phantom toes, and the condition is referring to when people have been amputated and they feel a phantom limb.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I don’t have any toes on my right side, but I am continuously told that the right way to run and the right way to do my long jump is to stay on my toes.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“So, it’s an inner joke in my training group that the man with no toes needs to stay on his toes so that he can perform at a world-class level. I think I’m doing ok for myself up until this point?” That final reference is rhetorical.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Global success</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having won gold in the 2024 World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan, the South African sportsman of the year with a disability goes into the Paralympics not only with gold on his mind, but a world record time as well.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The time to beat is 11.00sec, which happens to be his own world record, and something he refers to as “a personal best”. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">South Africans will gladly take a gold medal, but Mhlongo is looking to produce an exclamation mark performance in Paris.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I really believe that if you stop worrying about the time outcome of your race, and you break it down into three parts, and you execute those, you’ll have a year where you will break the world record, if not five times, 10 times, you finish the line, and you look at the clock and you go, that’s the world record.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“That’s something I might never catch again. And then you have to work towards beating your own personal best, which just so happens to be the world record in your class,” he said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Hopefully I can pull out a really good performance that will go into the history books. I think the big goal for Paris is to execute, execute like we’ve never before. How far can we beat our potential, wherever that might be, so definitely a world-record performance and definitely a gold medal. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“But hopefully our sights are aimed much higher (and much further in the long jump) so that we stay in the history books for as long as possible.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We can then say South Africa has held a record for 20, 30 years. Something to give some other people a chance to chase down South Africa on the global stage.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It all starts when he joins para-swimmer Kat Swanepoel in parading at the opening ceremony with the country’s flag.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They have been constantly smiling since they arrived in Paris and those smiles are only going to get broader as the clock ticks down. Will that clock next to the track be stopped somewhere between 10.80 and 10.99sec?</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having done much of his training in Europe under the expert eye of coach Jason Sewanyana, the signs are pointing that way. </span><b>DM</b>\r\n\r\n<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gary Lemke is in Paris as part of Team SA.</span></i>",
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"description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Born in Chatsworth, growing up in Klaarwater, studying in Cape Town, working in Johannesburg, making his Paralympic debut in Rio de Janeiro, being crowned world champion in both Paris and Kobe, Mpumelelo Mhlongo has become a true citizen of the world.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fortunately, he’s ours, South African and is one of two flagbearers for the country when the 2024 Paralympics burst into life on Wednesday night.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 30-year-old is taking part in his third Paralympics and this time he has very real prospects of showing that all that glitters is gold. He has a dazzling CV and having competed in the last Paralympics in Tokyo in the T64 category, where he finished fifth in all of the 100m, 200m and long jump, he’s back in the T44’s where it all started.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2336996\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1847\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2336996\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1-7-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"mhlongo gold paris\" width=\"1847\" height=\"2560\" /> <em>Mpumelelo Mhlongo trains at the Stade D’Athletisme Philippides at Creps in Montpellier, France, ahead of the upcoming Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. (Photo: Roger Sedres / TeamSA)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For those who are looking for an explanation as to what the T44 classification is, it is this: the para-athlete must have unaffected knee joints allowing for controlled power delivery but they must focus harder to sense and grip the track surface while maintaining good running posture and symmetry.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Which brings us to the 30-year-old. 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I think I’m doing ok for myself up until this point?” That final reference is rhetorical.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Global success</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having won gold in the 2024 World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan, the South African sportsman of the year with a disability goes into the Paralympics not only with gold on his mind, but a world record time as well.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The time to beat is 11.00sec, which happens to be his own world record, and something he refers to as “a personal best”. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">South Africans will gladly take a gold medal, but Mhlongo is looking to produce an exclamation mark performance in Paris.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I really believe that if you stop worrying about the time outcome of your race, and you break it down into three parts, and you execute those, you’ll have a year where you will break the world record, if not five times, 10 times, you finish the line, and you look at the clock and you go, that’s the world record.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“That’s something I might never catch again. 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Mpumelelo Mhlongo trains at the Stade D’Athletisme Philippides at Creps in Montpellier, France, ahead of the upcoming Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. (Photo: Roger Sedres / TeamSA)