Paralympic paddler Peter Cowan has added one last flourish to the NZ medal collection at Paris, claiming bronze in the last event contested at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.
In a dramatic VL3 va'a 200m single finish, Cowan edged Australian defending champion Curtis McGrath off the podium, as Ukrainian Vladyslav Yepifanov set a new Games record of 47.49s to claim gold.
The Kiwi clocked 48.28s for third, barely beating out McGrath (48.34s) and Chinese Yi Pu (48.46s) for the final medal.
The Kiwi edged a line-up of contenders for third in the final. (Source: TVNZ)
Cowan lost his leg, when he was hit by a car at age 15, and took up waka ama two years later. He finished second in the Paris semifinals with the second-fastest time, joining heat winners McGrath and Yepifanov in the final.
Brit Jack Eyers threatened to steal the victory midway through, but McGrath struck problems with a strong crosswind, as his boat began to skew offline, losing valuable ground. Cowan simply held his course to prevail.
"This feels unreal," he told TVNZ. "Coming into the race, I was really focused on the performance itself and not jumping the gun.
"There were times during the week when I started thinking about the podium, but me and my coach are pretty grounded in our goals, and that's just to focus on the performance as they come... every breath, every stroke in every race.
"In the startgate, I was just thinking about what I needed to do to get to that finishline, because I never know where I'm coming in the races and I do believe the performance will get the right result at the end of the day.
"To find out I made the podium was mindblowing."
The result leaves New Zealand with nine medals from the Paris Paralympics — one gold, four silver and four bronze — our lowest tally since six at Barcelona 1992.
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