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Hollie Arnold Claimed Bronze in a High Quality F46 Javelin Final
07/09/2024 00:00, In Blog /
Paralympic legend Hollie Arnold claimed bronze in a high quality F46 javelin final at a packed Stade De France in Paris on Friday night.
Arnold saw her own Paralympic record, set while winning gold in Rio eight years ago, extended during a pulsating competition.
The 30-year-old went into the competition in good form having won her sixth World title in Japan earlier this summer.
The Blackheath and Bromley athlete needed all of her experience with the competition being contested in front of a near 70,000 capacity crowd in the French capital.
Competing at a remarkable fifth Paralympics, Arnold opened her latest bid for glory with a distance of 38.46m, which saw her sitting in third place at the end of the first round.
A second round throw of 40.16m put the former Ystrad Mynach College student up to second place behind Venezuela’s Daniela Morillo Gill, who threw a South American area record of 41.90m to put herself in the lead at the end of the second round.
Arnold consolidated her place in the silver medal position with a throw of 40.59m in the third round. However, the little shake of her head as she walked back down the runway suggested he wasn’t entirely happy with the effort with Morillo Gill still holding the lead.
The former world record holder would have been even less impressed with her fourth and fifth round efforts which dipped to 37.36m and 36.14m respectively.
Arnold also slipped down to the bronze medal position as 15-year-old Shahinakhon Yigitalieva, of Uzbekistan, moved to the top of the standings with a throw of 43.09m, which bettered Arnold’s games record from 2016.
Arnold, who herself was just 14 when she became the youngest field athlete in Paralympic history when she competed at the 2008 Beijing games, was unable to respond with her last throw, sending it out to 39.25m.
But there was still drama to come as Morillo Gill claimed the gold medal with her final throw by improving the Paralympic record once again with a huge throw of 43.77m.
After the competition, Arnold, who also won bronze in Tokyo three years ago, paid tribute to the standard of the performances on the night and the quality that exists in the category.
“The girls are incredible and I don’t think people realise how amazing the F46 women are,” she said. “It has grown so much and it’s amazing to be a part of that.
“It’s not the medal I wanted, of course I wanted to come out and get that title back that I won eight years ago. But that’s sport, that’s life and it doesn’t mean I’m going to stop.”
And Arnold is already looking forward to what would be her sixth games in Los Angeles in four years’ time.
“We have to work even harder and I’m really excited for LA,” she said. “It could be my last one. I’m just so grateful that we had a crowd and my family and friends were here watching.”