Track cyclist Anna Taylor has put New Zealand on the medal rankings at the Paris Paralympics with her silver medal in the 3000m individual pursuit at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome.
Competing in the C4 category, Taylor was previously an able-bodied rower, before suffering a severe disc prolapse in her back that required emergency, and left her with weakness in her left leg and minor weakness in her right.
At her second Paralympics, she wasted no time showing her ability, recording the second-fastest time of 3m 42,137s in qualifying, which promoted her into the gold-medal final against flying Aussie Emily Petricola.
The Kiwi had no answer to Aussie champion Emily Petricola in the pursuit final. (Source: TVNZ)
Her rival was the reigning Paralympics champion from Tokyo 2020, where she set a world record in victory.
At Paris, Petricola took more than two seconds off that mark in qualifying with 3m 35.856s and poured it on during her showdown with Taylor, trailling through the 1000 metres, but overhauling and eventually catching the Kiwi before the end.
Meanwhile, swimmer Cameron Leslie — one of New Zealand's flagbearers in the opening ceremony — finished seventh in the final of the S4 100m freestyle, clocking 1m 24.03s to finish almost four seconds behind world recordholder Ami Omer Dadaon.
Leslie's time was marginally faster than his heat time that saw him qualify sixth fastest.
"Less than ideal is the short answer," reflected the former world champion. "I was hoping for a little bit quicker and I'm disappointed for sure.
"I'm really keen to understand which point of the race it fell apart, because the first 50 was good, but maybe I went too hard.
"Nature of the beast, sometimes you get swept up in the race and we know my back end is not geared for going early. Maybe that caught up with me."
Leslie's next event is the 200m freestyle.
In her first Paralympics, Gaby Smith, 18, also placed seventh in the SB9 100m breaststroke, seven seconds behind Dutch defending champion Chantelle Zijederveld.
"I was happy," she said. "It was a final and the most I can ask for.
"It wasn't quite as fast as this morning, but it's OK. Obviously, a lot of the girls are older than me, so I have to put that into perspective, reminding myself this is my first Paralympics and not putting too much pressure on myself.
"I'm happy with the result and I'm happy to make the final — that was the goal to start with."
Smith will also contest the S10 400m freestyle and SM10 200m individual medley.
Josh Willmer just missed the men's SB8 100m breatstroke final, clocking the ninth-fastest heat time to fall 0.07s short of a spot in the medal race.
Badminton pioneer Wojtek Czyk lost his second pool match 21-16 21-10 against Ukrainian Oleksandr Chyrkov, while cyclist Devon Briggs fell just less than one-tenth of a second short of a medal ride in the men's C3 individual pursuit, qualifying with the fifth-fastest time.
Shooter Michael Johnson finished fifth in the mixed 10m air rifgle standing SH2 final.
Watch the Paralympics live on TVNZ+ and TVNZ1 from August 29-September 9.
SHARE ME