William Stedman moved from sixth to second with his final jump in the T36 long jump and took a brave bronze in the 400m with an outstanding finishing sprint on the home straight that left him lying exhausted on the track with nothing more to give. Stedman had little sleep with a short turn-round from the evening long jump to the morning 400m.
Anna Grimaldi went into the T47 long jump with the added pressure of being defending champion from Rio. She opened with a good jump and confirmed victory with her final jump. She is reported to have said, "Rio, I won by accident and this time I did on purpose".
Holly Robinson by contrast had had a long string of silver medals in major competitions including the last Paralympics in Rio. Robinson finally took her well-deserved gold in the T46 javelin final with her last throw, moving from bronze position to gold. She had to wait in the rain for the final two throwers before being able to celebrate her gold medal.
In track and field, the sport is fully integrated at both New Zealand Schools and at the Athletics New Zealand Championships. All the para-athletes competed in Hastings at the end of March. Robinson and Grimaldi competed against able-bodied athletes and the others in para events. Robinson was second in the senior women's javelin with Grimaldi fourth in the senior women's long jump.
These para results followed the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in which New Zealand High-Performance Director Scott Goodman described New Zealand performances as a "par" score. I had a similar thought when reflecting on the two bronze medals won by Tom Walsh and Dame Valerie Adams in their respective shot competitions.
These were backed up by top 10 performances from Maddison-Lee Wesche (shot 6th), Jacko Gill (shot 9th), Julia Ratcliffe (hammer 9th) and Hamish Kerr (high jump 10th). All except Ratcliffe competed at the Cooks Classic in January, but Ratcliffe on an earlier visit set the current New Zealand Secondary Schools hammer record at Cooks Gardens in 2014.
It was unfortunate that Rio Olympic pole vault bronze medal winner Eliza McCartney was unavailable through injury and it will be of little consolation that McCartney's best vaults would have seen a return to the podium. Others in the team, some in their early 20s, will have gained invaluable experience and will benefit from it through the shorter three-year Olympic cycle.
It is hoped that the integrated nature of the sport, the success at the Paralympics backed up by sound Olympic performances will not go unnoticed by the funders at High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ) as they look at funding for the next Olympic cycle. The shorter cycle might hopefully persuade Olympians and Paralympians to postpone retirement plans.
We are all relieved that we have moved down to level 2 and hope that it will not be long until Auckland joins us.
All involved with sport will be looking at how sports can be creative and adapt to regulations keeping all involved safe under level 2 and hoping to return to level 1 before too long. I hope that all learn from our Paralympians in terms of positivity and adaptation.
