Muvunyi stumbles in 400m title chase

400m T46 FinalResults1. M. Gunther (Aus) 48.452. N. Yohansson (Bra) 49.213. U. Pathirannehelag (Sri) 49.28 5. H. Muvunyi (Rwa) 49.59HERMAS Cliff Muvunyi failed to march his preliminary round heroics, only managing a fifth place finish, albeit breaking his own African record in the men’s 400m final, last night at the Olympic stadium in London.Muvunyi, who led an overall preliminary round standing yesterday morning to qualify for the final by clocking 49.75, failed to maintain his brilliant display, effectively missing out on medal positions in his first attempt to win silverware.He clocked 49.59 to finish one second and 14 micro seconds behind Austria’s Gunther Matzinger, who won gold in the tight race. He stumbled and almost fell giving a chance to Brazil’s Nascimento Yohansson to grab silver in a time of 49.21 while Uggl Dena Pathirannehelag of Sri Lanka settled for bronze in a time of 49.28.Muvunyi who won gold in 400m and silver medal in 800 during last year’s All Africa games will now try to make amends on Thursday when he pursues a medal in the 800m T46.The 24-year old athlete won a silver medal in a time of 1:57:70 during the All Africa games and he will be on verge of emulating Jean de Dieu Nkundabera who last won a bronze medal in 2004 Paralympics games that took place in Athens-Greece in T46 800m race.In power lifting, Theogene Hakizimana finished 7th in the Men’s 82.50kg at ExCel. He lifted 175kg in his only attempt.Majid Farzin took gold for Iran with a best lift of 237kg, although he also had an anxious wait to see if victory was his.China’s Gu Xiao Fei attempted a lift of 238kg in the last round after Farzin had completed his three attempts, but the 23-year-old was unsuccessful and had to be content with silver with a best of 228kg.Bronze went to world champion Metwaly Mathana of Egypt with a best of 227kg. The Egyptians were celebrating their third Power-lifting gold medal of the Games in the final event of the day as Hany Abdelhady won the men’s -90kg title.The 32-year-old set a new Paralympic record of 241kg to see off his nearest opponent by 8kg, with China’s Cai Huichao taking silver (233kg) and Pavlos Mamalos of Greece (232kg) the bronze.

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Muvunyi stumbles in 400m title chase