MK bomb survivor rowing for victory

Beijing - Last night, 20 years, two months and four days after he walked out of Ellis Park stadium on two legs for the last time, Gordon Eddey, a 51-year old rower, stepped into the Bird's Nest stadium as a Paralympic athlete with just one proud limb.

His debut on the biggest of stages for disabled athletes was somewhat overshadowed by the presence of the younger stars of the South African team at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Paralympic Games last night.

But, then again, next year Eddey will be celebrating the anniversary of an event that is almost as old as the 24-year-old Natalie du Toit and the 21-year-old Oscar Pistorius.

In 1988, Eddey was one of the 35 people injured by a bomb planted by Umkhonto weSizwe operatives outside Ellis Park after a rugby match. Two people - Clive Clucas, 48, and Linus Marais, 34 - were killed in the blast.

"On July 2 next year, me and my good friend Roger Hagerty, who also lost his leg that day, have plans of going to Ellis Park to have a 21st birthday for our legs," laughed Eddey on Saturday.

"There were a bunch of us hockey players from the ow defunct Old Johannians sports club who had season tickets and used to go to the games together. Just Roger and I went that day, though.

"Transvaal had just beaten Free State, and it had been a gripping match. The Free State fans were not happy, though, and we were loving it."

The bomb was in a BMW outside the stadium. It was supposed to go off at 5pm, before the 10 000 people at the stadium exited.

"The sound of the bomb exploding was to have been the message," said Harold Matshididi, the MK operative who planted the device, in his submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commision in 1998.

It detonated at 5.10pm as the ground emptied.

"The irony is that I used to do some work for a jeweller and the BMW used was his best friend's car.

"We were about 16m from the BMW and the blast hit us in the legs. The guys who died were behind us. The shrapnel hit them higher up.

The late Campbell MacFarlane, a former paratrooper and respected trauma surgeon, managed to save Eddey's arm, but not his leg.

Competitive sport looked to be a thing of the past.

A few years ago Eddey's son, Creaghan, now 16, began rowing at King Edward School and one day Eddey was persuaded to take part in the Long Row, "which is just a long schlep down the river in which dads take part".

Adrian Higgins, who is now coach of the Paralympic rowing team, recognised his potential and convinced him to get involved in disabled rowing.

Eddey is a former journalist, who worked on the Rand Daily Mail, Sunday Times and the Evening Post.

His wife Tracy, daughter Cara and Creaghan will be at the Shunyi Rowing Park to watch him take part in the mixed fours event, which starts on Tuesday.

"At 51 I'm the oldest guy in the team, but we're flying and confidence is high, so we'll see what happens."

There's not just life after 50, there's life after losing a leg.

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• This article was originally published on page 1 of The Sunday Independent on September 07, 2008