Cedartown resident and world-famous wheelchair athlete Krige Schabort finished out June in a big way. For the first time in six years, Schabort captured a first-place win in the Cedartown 5K just last week. So is it any wonder that the 42-year-old Republic of South Africa native decided he would make a few fireworks of his own to welcome in the beginning of July?

On July 4, Schabort earned his third win at the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta. Schabort held on to a strong lead late in the race to beat out other top athletes like fellow South African Ernst Van Dyk and Mexico’s Saul Mendoza to get the crown in the men’s wheelchair division. Schabort’s finish time for the 10K-race was reported as 18:52.

The last time he took top honors in the race was in 2002 and 2003. Last year, he finished the Peachtree with a time of 20:14:92, earning him a fifth place spot.

If the names of the athletes that trailed behind Schabort at this year’s Peachtree sound familiar, it’s because they were all here racing around the streets of Cedartown last week. Mendoza, Van Dyk, Kurt Fernley (Australia) and Aaron Gordian (Mexico) were just a handful of the many world-class athletes who participated in the June 27 Cedartown 5K.

Switzerland’s Edith Hunkeler took the women’s wheelchair division for the second straight year in Tuesday’s Peachtree race. In the Cedartown 5K, Hunkeler set a new course record in the race by crossing the finish line in 11:30.1; four seconds off of her runner-up finish last year.

Schabort, who has lived in Cedartown for the past 10 years along with his wife, Caron, and sons, Daniel and Simon, won a Bronze Medal at the Paralympics in Barcelona, Spain in 1992, and a Silver Medal at the Sydney, Australia Games in 2000.

Most recently, Schabort placed second in the Boston Marathon and won first place in April’s Tour de Georgia handcycling event in Rome.