Paralympics: Slade NZ's golden boy

1.00pm

Canterbury's Matt Slade won New Zealand's first gold medal of the Paralympic Games when he just defeated Cheng Yang in the men's T37 200m final in Athens today.

Two hours later, Peter Martin of Waikato took out the bronze in the men's F52 discus to kickstart New Zealand's medal tally.

Slade and Yang both recorded the same time of 24.85sec, but the New Zealander held on by the barest of margins having hit the front halfway down the straight.

Not confident going into the race, he was looking more at bronze or silver rather than gold.

"This is totally unexpected. I mean, I always wanted to win but I actually didn't believe I could," Slade said.

"I really just wanted to get in the top three. When I came round the bend I saw the South African (Le Irvine de Kock) and the Algerian (Mohamed Allek) to my right. They might have been ahead of me but I just ran as fast as I could.

"I have never beaten the Algerian. He has the world record and I had never seen the South African until he won his heat yesterday. I didn't know what to expect from him."

Slade, 26, equalled his personal best, but he was hoping to run 24.70sec.

"I'll take the gold medal any day over a PB," he said.

Slade now can look forward to the 100m on Saturday.

"I won silver in the 200m in Sydney and went one better tonight. I won the bronze in the 100m over there, so hopefully I can improve again."

Martin was tied for third with Horacio Bascioni of Argentina, but he took the bronze because his second best throw was superior.

"I would have liked to have thrown a bit further, but I would have had to break my personal best by a distance if I was to grab silver. My consistency was good (all six throws were 15m plus) so it augurs well for the shot put tomorrow.

"Shot put is my strongest discipline, followed by javelin, and they are both still to come," he said.

Tim Prendergast, 25, ran himself into the ground in finishing fourth in the T13 1500m final, having to be carried off on a stretcher at the conclusion of the race.

After having a shoe ripped off in the semifinals, Prendergast decided to take the lead early to keep out of trouble.

"I went to the front early for safety, but no-one came round me to take over. It did not worry me because I felt so good. It was only the last 300m that I felt under pressure and in the last 100m I hit the wall.

"I'm fine now. I'm hydrated, my heart rate has come down and I shall be fine for the 800m on Saturday," he said.

Prendergast's strong front running tactics led to Tunisia's Maher Boualleque breaking the world record by five seconds in recording 3.51.09. Prendergast ran 3.56.03.

Terry Falevaai of Auckland made it through to the final round of the F33-34 shot put, but he couldn't improve on his seventh placing, while Kate Horan of Wellington finished 10th in her 100m event, a distance well short of her best.

In wheelchair rugby, the Wheel Blacks will play Belgium on Thursday in the first round of playoffs after they defeated Japan 37-25.

At the velodrome, Whangarei's Fiona Southorn recorded a personal best in the LC 1-4 km time trial, but it was only good enough for seventh in a white-hot competition.

- NZPA