While the global athletics fraternity’s eyes are firmly focused on London and the IAAF World Championships, elsewhere in Europe, South Africa is just as much in the spotlight. – By Mark Etheridge, SASCOC

On a weekend which saw SA winning their first two medals at the London championships, courtesy of Luvo Manyonga and Ruswahl Samaai in the long jump, Paralympian Ntando Mahlangu was breaking a world record.

The teenager was competing at the 2017 World Para Athletics Junior Championships in Nottwil, Switzerland.

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The men’s 200-metre silver medallist at the Rio Paralymics, Mahlangu set a new world mark in the T42 (amputees) 100m event.

His winning time of 12.01 seconds meant he improved on a four-year-old record, which belonged to Germany’s Heinrich Popow. Mahlangu clipped 0.10 seconds off the old mark.

It was 15-year-old Mahlangu’s second gold medal of the championships having won 200m gold earlier in the week.

‘I’m very happy about the world record,’ said Mahlangu. ‘I’m here to do my best. I wasn’t expecting a world record but definitely a fast time. I wanted to run below 12 seconds but I cannot complain; it’s wonderful for me to achieve this at such a young age.’

This article originally appeared on SASCOC.