After just missing out on a medal in her specialist javelin event, Kiwi Holly Robinson has bounced back to win silver in the women’s shot F46 at the para athletics world championships, with an Oceania record throw of 11.59m.
Competing in the shot for the first time at world championships, since finishing seventh way back in 2011, Robinson's toss secured her second spot on the podium, behind American Noelle Malkamaki, who set a jaw-dropping three world records during an historic competition, topped by a mighty 13.32m.
With the women’s shot put F46 recently re-introduced into the major championship programme, the event has given the Kiwi a fresh focus and she showed her versatility, after four previous medals won in the javelin (three silver and one bronze).
Robinson, the Tokyo Paralympics javelin champion, underwent elbow surgery in January and was understandably not at her best in her specialist event, finishing fourth, but delivered in the shot circle, taking an immediate hold on second with an opening 10.92m effort.
"It feels cool," she said. "I wasn’t expecting silver.
"I thought bronze would have been the tussle, but I'm super-stoked and over the moon with silver.
"I had some clear goals with shot and I knew what I needed to do to get the distances that I wanted. I'm just glad it all worked out on the day.
"I was pretty happy with how I threw. We had a solid field, and anyone could have taken those second and third spots, so I’m really happy I got the distance.
"It seems weird that I will going into the Paralympics as the world shot silver medallist and fourth in javelin, so it is kind of backwards for me, but I'm really excited to see what the next year holds.
"It would be cool to compete in two events and medal in two events at the Paris Paralympics."
