Wellington cyclist Paula Tesoriero finished yesterday's 500m time trial at the Beijing Paralympics with a gold medal, a world record and concussion.
Tesoriero recorded a time of 43.281sec to finish ahead of German rider Natalie Simanowski, with Australia's Jayme Paris third.
But shortly after finishing the race, as
she was warming down and cycled up the embankment to wave to family and friends, Tesoriero's handlebars turned down and she came off her bike.
New Zealand chef de mission Duane Kale said that although Tesoriero had been briefly knocked unconcious, her helmet had emerged unscratched from the topple.
"She broke her fall with her chin..." he said.
Kale said that although a broken jaw was initially suspected, x-rays seemed to discount that, although Tesoriero did have some signs of concussion.
The 33-year-old Wellingtonian was elated with the victory, but doesn't plan to stop at just one gold medal.
"I feel fantastic. Absolutely fantastic," she said straight after her win.
"The race went exactly to plan. It was a bit tight toward the end, but I finished around half a second between gold and silver. My next race is on Wednesday and I want to do it again," she said.
Tesoriero will contest the women's individual pursuit on Wednesday, and the road race on Saturday.
In an excellent day for New Zealand, 15-year-old swimmer Sophie Pascoe took silver in the women's S10 100m butterfly, clocking 1min 10.53sec behind Anna Eames (USA) winning 1:09.44.
Kale said Pascoe had been aiming at using the butterfly and 100m freestyle later today as a warm-up for her main events, the 100m breaststroke and 200m medley.
But after swimming a personal best in yesterday morning's heats, she cranked up the effort in the final to haul in Chinese swimmer Shuai Wang over the last 50m for second place.
- NZPA
