Grimaldi’s final jump was a personal best of 5.62m to win gold ahead of Cuba’s Yunidis Castillo and Australia’s Carlee Beattie in the women’s long jump T47, for those with limb deficiencies.
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Paralympian Sophie Pascoe has made history in Rio de Janeiro, taking New Zealand’s 200th Paralympic medal in style, when she won silver in the Women’s 50m Freestyle S10 at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
Grimaldi’s previous best jump was 5.41, putting today’s jump a massive 21cm ahead of her personal best.
She took out the final of her event in setting a new World Record time of 1 minute 17.96 seconds, edging Liwen Cai (China) and Maja Reichard (Sweden).
Anna Grimaldi – entering the world of Para-Athletics just over three years ago and in that time stormed onto the world stage at last year’s IPC Athletics World Championships winning a bronze in the Women’s Long Jump T47.
New Zealand now has five medals at Rio, two golds, one silver and two bronzes. Grimaldi’s full biography can be found here.
Two years later, still just 15 years old, she went on to win three gold medals and one silver medal at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics.
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The gold medal was won by Akeem Stewart (Trinidad and Tobago) with a new world record throw of 57.32m.
