Danielle Aitchison and Anna Grimaldi win silver

Danielle Aitchison and Anna Grimaldi have both won silver at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai.

A new Oceania Area Record time of 29.86 secured the silver medal for Danielle Aitchison in the 200m T36 final. Competing in her first international event, the 18-year-old from Hamilton continued her strong form from the morning’s heats and said she went out there with no expectations. “It’s my first big international championship and it was very cool to race against other T36. In New Zealand there are no other T36 to race against. I’m so happy with how I ran, so happy with my placing and now just have to work towards Tokyo.”

Anna Grimaldi got off to a flying start in the long jump T47 competition with a season’s best jump of 5.44m in round one. Anna bettered her performance in round five, jumping 5.50m to secure the silver medal. “It’s been a massive two and a half years of rehab for me with not knowing if I’d be back to my fullest ever. I’m so happy to be back out there and to take home the silver medal, I can’t even put into words, what a cool comeback.”

“I’m really happy with what I managed to pull out on the day, I think it shows what a good team I’ve got behind me and what they prepared me for leading into this and I can’t thank them enough,” said Anna. “I feel like we’re going in the right direction, but there’s still a lot left in the tank and I’m really looking forward to next year.”

In the shot put F20 final Jack Lewer had a best throw of 11.15m, finishing 15th overall in the competition. Jacob Phillips ran 29.30 in the 200m T35 final to place 6th. Mitch Joynt was 8th in the 200m T64 final, crossing in 23.64. Mitch said he had come in the competition hoping to make the top eight: “Just being in the final at my first world champs is a dream come true really, it’s only up from here.”

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