Grimaldi Blasts To Breakout 100m Bronze

Double Paralympic long jump champion Anna Grimaldi earned her first ever global track medal with a dazzling bronze medal in the women’s 100m T47 to highlight the day three evening session at the Paris 2023 Para Athletics World Championships.

The 26-year-old Dunedin-based athlete hinted at her ability to bust the podium in the heats on Tuesday after hacking 0.29 from her national record and setting an Oceania record of 12.31, and today, when it counted most, she backed up that performance in style.

Making a solid start, Grimaldi sat third for much of the final – behind Kiara Rodriguez of Ecuador and defending champion Brittni Mason. Maintaining good form throughout, Grimaldi repelled a late charge from Saska Sokolov of Serbia to breast the line in 12.32 - within 0.01 of her lifetime best and on to a most welcome podium.

Rodriguez earned gold in a PB of 12.17 to dethrone Mason of her crown – the American settling for silver in 12.24.

After crossing the line an ecstatic Grimaldi sprinted to the jubilant Kiwi team in the grandstand where World shot put F37 champion Lisa Adams gave the Kiwi bronze medallist a warm embrace.

Grimaldi said: “With about 70m to go my mouth opened and it was ‘Oh my God’ I’m in third. I wasn’t expecting to be in the hunt for a medal, I was ranked ninth coming into this and I thought maybe yesterday (and setting an Oceania record) was a fluke. I’m not a 100m runner I’m a long jumper, but I guess now I’m sort of a 100m runner.”

On what has made the difference and why the New Zealand athlete has made such a giant leap forward in the 100m she said: “There has been so many risks I have taken in the past eight months. I have a new coach (Mike Jacobs) and my training environment has changed. I came to Europe early to do a long pre-camp and it has been a process of falling back in love with the sport and understanding the opportunities athletics gives me. It is more than just training hard, there is so much fun to be had and so many cool experiences. Taking all that in has made me more confident.”

On the long jump T47 final which takes place on Sunday she said: “It is going to be epic. It will feature the first (Rodriguez) and third from the 100m. Speed is a massive part of the long jump, it is my biggest asset and I could feel the last couple of weeks when practising long jump it was getting harder to take off which usually means I’m running fast.”

In a momentous session for New Zealand sprinting, Danielle Aitchison produced an imperious performance in heat one of the women’s 100m T36 to equal the championship record in 13.68 and shatter her Oceania record with a dazzling display.

The 21-year-old Hamilton-based athlete, who collected Paralympic bronze in this event in Tokyo, blasted out of the blocks and running with poise and style wiped 0.13 from the Oceania record she set in Townsville last month.

A further measure of the quality of the performance is Aitchison come within 0.07 of the world record of Yiteng Shi of China and she finished nearly a full second clear of the second place finisher, Araceli Rotela of Argentina (14.66).

Aitchison comfortable topped the qualifiers for the final which takes place on Thursday at 6.16am with Shi, the current World and Paralympic champion, the second quickest in taking out heat two in a time of 14.46.

An elated although surprised Aitchison said: “I didn’t expect that level of performance. It was just get out there, have a cruise, and see if I could do enough to finish top three (and advance to the final), so to equal the championship record was totally unexpected.

“We just really wanted to focus on the blocks and took it is an opportunity to real listen for that bang, power out of the blocks, get into a good cruise rhythm and execute the race. It all came together nicely.”

Auckland-based New Zealand sprinter Mitch Joynt finished seventh in a high-quality heat two of the men’s 100m T64, clocking 12.06. In a race featuring two-time Paralympic 100m champion Jonnie Peacock of Great Britain and reigning World champion Johannes Floors of Germany the heat win was banked by Italy’s Maxcel Amo Manu in an area record time of 10.64.

The 28-year-old Kiwi will now focus his energy on his specialist event – the men’s 200m T64 – which takes place on Tuesday (18 July).

The next Kiwi to perform at Stade Charlety is Paralympic champion Holly Robinson who competes in the women’s javelin F46 at 7.26pm on Wednesday. Robinson, who is making her sixth appearance at the Para Athletics World Championships, is seeking a fifth javelin medal at the event having previously snared three silver and one bronze medal.

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