Paralympics: Two more golds for NZ

7.45am

The New Zealand Paralympic team are basking in further gold medal glory today after Michael Johnson won the standing air rifle and Peter Martin the shot put on day five of the 12th Paralympics in Athens overnight.

A day after Matt Slade won New Zealand's first gold in the T37 200m, Johnson and Martin added to the tally setting new world records in the process.

Johnson, from Auckland, became the first person at this level of competition to shoot a perfect 600, beating the previous record of 599 set in 1995.

His final total of 703.4 was a full point ahead of the former record holder Thomas Johansson from Sweden.

Martin, from Matangi in the Waikato, smashed his own world record of 9.09m with his first throw of 9.25m, beat it again with his second throw of 9.34m.

Five of his six throws surpassed his old world mark.

"I wanted to make a statement with that first throw. This is my event and I wanted to prove a point," he said.

His first three throws had a profound affect on his opposition.

"I saw a few heads go down and a few competitors came up and congratulated me, even though there were three throws to go.

"It was more their appreciation of good throwing than anything else.

"It doesn't get much better that this, a gold medal and a world record in a place like this," he said.

Martin, 42, won bronze in the F52 discus yesterday and also won gold in the shot put in Sydney at 2000 Games.

He has a chance to improve his tally when he competes in the javelin on Monday.

Even though Johnson shot a world record in the qualification round, he still had to endure the very intense 10-shot shoot off where the eight competitors shoot off simultaneously, with only their individual results being read out and not a progress.

"I didn't think I had won because everyone else's scores seemed so high," he said after the final.

The competitors are not able to see the leaderboard from where they are shooting, they can only hear the results.

"I always thought I was capable of winning a gold medal, but it has probably come earlier than I expected."

Johnson had missed on target 52 and 54 in recent competitions, so was very aware of those two glitches when he was shooting.

"I missed on 52 the other day when shooting 599, and I missed on 54 in Auckland before coming over here. You could say I was very keen to get passed those two numbers."

Johnson has only been shooting for three years.

Teammate Colin Willis did not have the same success in the 10m air rifle prone, finishing 33rd.

In other results Auckland equestrian Jane Craike could not match her silver from Sydney in the Championship Test -- grade four finishing fourth. Craike, on Landgravin-W, scored 69.484 points, only 0.387 away from silver.

Swimmer Daniel Sharp missed out on a bronze in the men's S13 100m freestyle, finishing fourth in 58.76 secs.

Sharp was seventh at the turn, but came home strongly over the last 50m while Theresa Griffin from Hamilton qualified eighth for the final of the women's SB9 100m breaststroke.

- NZPA