Dunedin Paralympic long jumper Anna Grimaldi has a spring in her step, is in career best form, and is jumping straight towards Tokyo.
It may seem no surprise that the 2016 gold medalist is dominating the sport, but it all could have been so different.
A navicular stress fracture not long after Rio led to six months of rehab and two and a half years without a jump.
"It could have been easy to just say no, no, this is just way too hard," Grimaldi told 1 NEWS.
"I was lying face down on the floor doing glute exercises or walking in a straight line to try and get my foot to work and I just sort of thought, this isn't what I want to be doing right now."
Persistence though, paid off and now the distances she is jumping are putting everyone on notice.
"At the nationals her worst jump was a gold medal in Rio," coach Brent Ward said.
"The others were third best jumps ever."
Grimaldi's 5.91m jump in February ranks her second overall in New Zealand, able-bodied athletes included, and just ten centimetres off a para world record.
With four months of training still to come, that record could soon need to be rewritten.
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