Two days before the 2015 Special Olympics Summer World Games draw to a close in Los Angeles, Team Luxembourg have reported a total of thirteen medals to their name.

Since the team's first medal win on Tuesday, more major medal contributions arrived on Thursday in the form of the track and field athletes, swimmers and bocce players.

Middle-distance runners Eike Schröder and Ronny Kontz delivered an excellent performance, each setting a significant new record to their times from the beginning of the week. With a time of 12"38, Kontz earned himself a Silver Medal, whilst Schröder himself just missed a chance for a place on the podium with a time of 11"05. Both athletes have since been training for Saturday's half-marathon with laps around the USC Loker Stadium.

The afternoon's events were also cause for celebration, with the 50 Metres winning Danielle Scheer Silver and Laurent Praus Gold. Swimming success was delivered in the form of Bronze Medals for both Christiane Schlesser in the 25 Metre Backstroke and Laurent Blitgen in the 50 Metre Freestyle, wherein Mario Harpe also earned himself seventh place.

The football team experienced a 0:3 defeat to their Chinese counterparts, whilst the basketball players had a day off before the final two days of the Games. In tennis, Jeff Lazzarini was defeated by Di Maria of Monaco with two clear 0:4 losses, before making a comeback in a Bronze Medal win with Kelly Toex in the doubles event.

Anticipation was high for the individual bocce competitions, where both Luxembourg participants were allocated to the second highest playgroup. With two successes Claudine Koch immediately went through to the finals, and with 11:5 in the repechage Annouck Frédéric qualified for the second national meet. Here the principle of double elimination came into play, and the Luxembourgish player had to play a third game where she won the Gold Medal for her team.

Team Luxembourg has reported it still hopes for more medals until the conclusion of the World Games this Saturday 1 August 2015.

 

Photos by Special Olympics Luxembourg (Top - L-R: Annouck Frédéric ; Claudine Koch. Bottom: Laurent Praus)