Paralympics: More gold for NZ in Athens

9.00am

Tim Prendergast and team captain Peter Martin and struck gold for New Zealand at the Paralympic Games in Greece today.

Cyclist Paul Jesson also picked up a bronze medal in Athens.

Martin, of Waikato, won the men's F52/53 javelin with a world record throw of 16.70m, while Prendergast, of Wellington, won the T13 800m in a time of one minute 56.23 seconds.

Jesson's bronze was in the LC3 road race and time trial combined.

The day's haul lifted New Zealand's tally of gold medals to six, the same as they won in Sydney four years ago when they had a larger team.

They have a chance to add to that tomorrow with both boccia teams in the semifinals. Boccia is a game similar to bowls.

Prendergast was immaculate on the track and after a slow first lap he kicked at the bell to open up a 5m gap on his rival.

He kicked again half way down the back straight to increase his lead to 8m and then held the field at bay to win by 5m.

It helped make up for his earlier efforts in the 1500m when he lost a shoe in qualifying second, then had to be taken from the arena on a stretcher having set up a world record pace before finishing fourth.

Despite the golden result Martin was disappointed with his javelin performance because he had hoped for a better distance.

"I was pretty tired out there and had no left arm.

"I have thrown further outside of competition of this level, but I am stoked to have achieved what I have done over here," said Martin, who had earlier won a gold medal in the shot put and bronze in the discus.

In what could be one of his last competitive rides, Jesson won bronze in the combined LC3 road race and time trial.

After finishing second in the road race on Saturday, Jesson's sixth placing in the time trial of 17min 40sec was enough to hold on to third spot.

New Zealand's two boccia teams are preparing for semifinal showdowns.

The BC1-2 team of Liam Sanders, Ross Flood, Maurice Toon and Jeremy Morriss beat Hong Kong 10-5 and Denmark 12-0 while losing 4-5 to the highly rated Portuguese today.

The BC3 side of Henk Dijkstra and Greig Jackson had two victories today, a 10-0 win over Ireland and 10-4 over the Czech Republic.

- NZPA