Kiwi sprinter Danielle Aitchison has captured a silver medal over T36 200m, adding to New Zealand's growing tally at the Tokyo Paralympics.
From the start, Aitchison immediately lost the stagger to Chinese rival Shi Yiting, running a lane inside her, but showed strength down the home straight to clinch her second placing in 29.88s.
Shi, who also edged the Kiwi for gold at the 2019 world championships, equalled her world record time of 28.21s.
Argentinian Yanina Andrew Martinez was level with Aitchison at halfway, faded badly and was eventually pipped for bronze, but German Nicole Nicoleitzik was later disqualified, elevating Martinez back onto the podium.
"I feel so happy to be here and do all the work and get a reward - a silver medal," says Aitchison. "It makes me so happy to finally get everything I wanted, so cool.
"I'm so happy for the Chinese girl, so happy for what she's done. I love to run fast and feel so free."
Aitchison, 20, won her heat early Sunday morning (NZ time) in 30.12s - the second-fastest time of the preliminaries - but didn't have much time to recover, returning to the Olympic Stadium just hours later for the medal race. Shi clocked 29.37s winning the second heat.
Another of Aitchison's medal rivals - London 2012 champion Ellena Ivanova of Russian Olympic Committee - stumbled in the closing metres of their heat and did not qualify for the final.
Aitchison is afflicted with cerebral palsy, which has also impaired her hearing.
Her performance added to New Zealand's three medals at the Games so far, with shot putter Lisa Adams and swimmer Tupou Neiufi taking gold, and swimmer Sophie Pascoe capturing silver so far this week.
New Zealand's best Paralympics haul came at New York 1984, when it captured 25 medals, including eight gold. At Rio de Janiero 2016, the Kiwis won nine gold medals.
Aitchison will return to the track on Wednesday to contest T36 100m heats.
Sunday, August 29
ATHLETICS
Women’s 200m final - Danielle Aitchison (T36), 2nd 29.88s (silver medal)
