Lisa Adams came close to her personal best in the discus final. Photo / Getty
Lisa Adams came close to her personal best in the discus final. Photo / Getty
Lisa Adams has ended her maiden Paralympics with a seventh-place finish in the discus to go with the shot put gold she won last week.
The Kiwi has a clear preference for shot put - her coach and four-time Olympic medallist Dame Valerie Adams might have something to do withthat - but she acquitted herself well in tough conditions.
Adams had said the F37/38 discus final was her "fun event" but few were enjoying themselves too much as the rain pelted down at Olympic Stadium.
That made the discus difficult to grip at times and Adams recorded three fouls in her six attempts. Her best effort was her second, measured at 29.69m, slightly down on her personal best of 30.19m.
Adams was more than four metres outside the medal places but, given she was ranked ninth coming into the final, would have been satisfied enough to match the seventh place she recorded at the 2019 world championships.
One athlete who had no trouble with the conditions was China's Mi Na, who won shot put silver behind Adams last week. The reigning three-time Paralympic champion smashed the world record with a throw of 38.50m, easily claiming gold ahead of compatriot Li Yingli (33.73).
Like with shot put, Adams began throwing the discus only three years ago, so the 30-year-old will take away plenty of positives from Tokyo.
She will also take away a gold medal, one of six won by the 29-strong New Zealand team, who claimed 12 medals in total and sit 20th on the medal table.
At Rio 2016, New Zealand finished 13th on the medal table with 21 medals, a record-equalling nine of them gold.
Johnson misses final
Veteran shooter Michael Johnson has been unable to add to his three Paralympic medals, missing out on a spot in the final of the R9 mixed 50m rifle prone (SH2).
Johnson, who won gold in Athens in 2004, finished 13th in the 29-strong field after a poor start left him with too much ground to make up in the second half of qualification.
The 47-year-old posted his three best scores in his final three series to finish with a total of 620.2, just 2.5 points outside of the top-eight spot he needed to make the final.
Johnson will leave the Paralympics having made the final in one of his three events, finishing sixth, ninth and 13th.
Martlew's campaign ends
Scott Martlew's Paralympic Games campaign came to a close with an eighth-placed finished in the final for the men's VL3 canoe sprint.
Martlew had to go through the semifinal heats to secure his place in the final, which meant he had less than two hours between races on the final day of competition in Tokyo, which showed late in the piece.
The Christchurch paddler came out of the starting blocks well in the final and was among the early leaders, before Great Britain's Stuart Wood and Australia's Curtis McGrath soon surged ahead. McGrath, who was one of just two athletes who qualified for the final straight from the opening heats, clearly had more to give as blew the competition away in the second half of the 200m race, leaving it as a contest for the minor placings.
Brazilian Giovane Vieira de Paula and Wood, who both also had to qualify through the semifinals earlier in the day, rounded out the podium, finishing 1.6sec and 2.2sec behind McGrath.
Martlew was a further couple of seconds behind, crossing the finish line 4.2sec after the Australian.
