Kiwi sprinter Danielle Aitchison has claimed New Zealand’s second medal of the Paralympic Games, finishing second in the women’s 200m T36 final.
Only a day earlier, the Morrinsville-born 23-year-old stamped her medal credentials when she ran a 28.09sec to break the Paralympic Games 200m record by 0.1sec in her heat.
It was an accolade Aitchison added alongside her reigning world record time of 27.47sec set in the final of the world championship in May and saw her enter the final as the fastest qualifier.
But in a tightly contested final, it was a two-horse race as the Kiwi was outpaced by reigning Paralympic champion Shi Yiting of China by 0.14sec; the Chinese athlete breaking Aitchison’s Paralympic record and finishing just 0.03sec off Aitchison’s world record time.
The final was significantly faster than when the two competed at the Tokyo Games in 2021 with the same result; Aitchison bettered her time from that final by more than 2sec in Paris.