Heinrich Popow of Germany crosses the line to win gold ahead of silver medallist Scott Reardon of Australia in the Men's 100m T42 at the Paralympic Games in London
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Silver medalist Scott Reardon of Australia, gold medalist Heinrich Popow of Germany and bronze medalist Wojtek Czyz of Germany pose on the podium during the medal ceremony for the Men's 100m T42 Final at the London Paralympics
© • Getty Images
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Up until the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships in New Zealand, Germany’s Heinrich Popow had always been the nearly man of track and field, a medal contender in many events, but never one to secure gold.
Luckily, that all changed in New Zealand, and the popular German can now call himself not just world champion but also Paralympic champion after success at London 2012.
Popow, a T42 single above-the-knee amputee and Ottobock ambassador, made his Paralympic debut in Athens in 2004 winning three bronze medals in the 100m (13.00), 200m (27.10) and long jump (5.43m).
Two years later, and it was bronze again for Popow, this time in the long jump at the 2006 IPC Athletics World Championships in the Netherlands after recording a leap of 5.07m.
In Beijing in 2008, gold eluded Popow again. He failed to medal in the long jump and could only manage 100m silver (12.98).
At the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships, Popow finally got his hands on gold and stood top of the podium not once, but twice.
In the long jump, he won a thrilling final. Leading after the first four rounds by just 2cm, Popow must have thought his chance of gold had gone in the penultimate round when teammate Wojtek Czyz leapt 6.14m to smash the Championship record. Popow still had one big jump left in him and at the very next attempt leapt 6.23m, to smash the record again and secure his first ever gold medal.
Four days later, and full of confidence after his long jump win, Popow was top of the podium again this time after winning a nail-biting 100m final. His time of 12.56 records was a new Championship record and just 0.04 seconds ahead of France’s Clavel Kayitare who took silver.
London 2012 saw Popow storm to gold in a thrilling 100m final (12.40) in a European record time, 0.03 seconds ahead of Australian Scott Reardon.
He took bronze in both the 200m and 4x100m T42-46 events.
Now he has the taste for gold medals, he will be looking for more titles in Lyon.
