With four jumps remaining in the Paralympics long jump competition, Kiwi athlete Will Stedman needed only a slight improvement to snatch victory at Stade de France.
After five rounds, he lay fourth, but only two centimetres off the lead of an incredibly tight contest that had three rivals locked together and separated only on countback.
Moments later, Stedman saw his own podium hopes dashed, as he overran the take-off board without improving his overall position. With the next jump, defending Paralympics and world champion Evgenii Torsunov broke the deadlock at the top, stretching out to 5.83m with his final attempt to take another gold.
Brazilian Aser Mateus Almeida Ramos and Ukrainian Oleksandr Lytvynenko remained tied for second with 5.76m, although the South American's 5.70m backup gave him silver, while Stedman — silver medallist at Tokyo 2020 — finished with 5.74m.
"Obviously, coming fourth by two centimetres is not what you come to do," he told TVNZ. "It's pretty disappointing, but I gave it a good shot out there.
The Kiwi athlete finishes just 2cm outside the medals at Paris. (Source: TVNZ)
"I had a good first jump that was just over and I gave it a good effort on all of them, so I can be proud of that.
"For sure, disappointed... it's not what I came here to do."
Stedman's opening effort fell just short of the 6 metres mark and replays showed his foot barely over the board, not even making an impression on the plasticine used to indicate a foul. That result meant he had to be more conservative on his second attempt, which yielded 5.63m.
"After the second jump, I felt pretty good, but the legs just felt a bit dead in the second half of the competition," he reflected. "That was frustrating, but I really gave it my all and I'm really happy with how I went mentally — that's all you can do, right?
"I've come back on the last jump in a couple of competitions, so I knew I had it, but just felt tired and it didn't come together. It was a super-tight competition, which was cool to see, and the clash is quite competitive."
Stedman, 24, was born with cerebral palsy and made his Paralympics debut at Rio 2016 as a teenager, becoming one of New Zealand's most decorated performers over the past decade. He captured a dramatic world title over 400 metres at Kobe in July and still has that event to come on the Paris programme.
"I'm really looking forward to competing tomorrow and the 100 metres later this week," he said. "Definitely a bit of fire for that, so it will be good to get back and recover... I'm really going to smash it tomorrow."
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