Rotorua’s paralympic shot put champion Lisa Adams turns up heat at Sola Power event

Paralympic champion Lisa Adams unleashes her longest throw in two years at the Sola Power Throwers Mett in Lower Hutt on February 4. Photo / Maddi King

Paralympic champion Lisa Adams from Rotorua ignited the Sola Power Throwers Meet in Lower Hutt by unleashing her longest throw for two years.

With a mighty hurl of 15.18m, the 32-year-old superstar athlete gave a clear demonstration of her world-class gifts to dominate the women’s Para shot put competition and offer real optimism ahead of the World Para Athletics Championships in Paris in July.

On Friday night, Adams performed well at the Team Ledger Harcourts Capital Classic, firing the 3kg metal ball to 14.73m.

But less than 24 hours later she turned up the quality of her throwing a notch to produce a 15.18m effort in round three and followed this up with a 14.99m effort in the fourth stanza.

To put the performance of the reigning world and Paralympic shot put F37 thrower into context, Adams’ world record mark set in 2020 stands at 15.50m.

After striking gold at the Tokyo Paralympics the Lake City AC athlete underwent surgery and she also admitted it was challenging to maintain motivation in the wake of the postponement of the 2022 World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan.

However, her performance at the Sola Power Throwing Academy suggested she is approaching her best form.

“I am really stoked,” she said. “I have gone through some changes following surgery and today was the furthest I’ve thrown for two years - and 6cm further than when winning gold in Tokyo.

“Today is a good stepping-stone, a good benchmark. It is still early in the season, and I will look to continue to progress my season from here.”

Adams will look to compete at the Porritt Classic in Hamilton on February 11 before moving on to compete at the 2023 Jennian Homes New Zealand Track and Field Championships in Wellington from March 2 to 5, before heading north for the Sir Graeme Douglas International in Auckland on March 16.

Behind Adams, North Harbour Bays athlete Sionnan Murphy, 17, bettered her national U20 shot put F37 record for a second successive day with a 8.54m throw last night at Newtown Park, and added a further 18cm to that mark today to complete a satisfactory couple of days work for the Aucklander.

New Zealand U20 shot put champion Natalia Rankin-Chitar (Papatoetoe), who posted a PB of 14.95m at the Team Ledger Harcourts Capital Classic, backed up that performance to win on Saturday to win the U20 event with a best throw of 14.37m.

Mikayla Sola (Lower Hutt) – daughter of event organiser, Shaka - won the U18 women’s shot competition with a PB of 13.49m.

Nick Palmer (Hastings) fired out his best effort of 18.72m in round six to claim a comfortable victory in the men’s shot from the improving Liam Ngchok-Wulf (Papakura), who recorded a best of 16.99m.