WILTSHIRE teenager Polly Maton delivered a magnificent performance to win silver in the women's T47 long jump at the World Para Athletics Championships at London Stadium this morning.
Five years after being a 12-year-old spectator at the London 2012 Paralympics at the same venue, the 17-year-old from Urchfont lowered her season's best three times and set a personal best in the final round to snatch a place on the podium and her first top-level international medal.
A personal best of 5.23m for Polly Maton as she wins silver in the T46 Long Jump! 👏 👊 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/uSRmsQnAgB
— C4 Paralympics (@C4Paralympics) July 23, 2017
Maton, who was fifth in the women's T47 100m with a season's best time earlier in the week, opened the competition with a season's best jump of 5.06m and raised that further with 5.11m in the fourth of six rounds to lie in bronze medal position with one round of jumps still to go.
France's Angelina Lanza briefly threatened to deny the Team Bath athlete, who is coached by Colin Baross, when she jumped 5.22m with her sixth and final effort, pushing Maton out of the medals into fourth.
But the Dauntsey's School student, who had been carrying a problem with her take-off foot into the competition, responded magnificently, roaring out to 5.23m - a new personal best - to rise to silver medal spot behind the winner, the USA's Taleah Williams.
“It doesn’t feel real – I think I’m going to wake up in five minutes and someone is going to tell me ‘no, no, that didn’t happen and you still need to compete!’,” she said.
“To do it in front of my home crowd and in front of my friends and family – in an event I’ve perceived to be my weakest entering the championships – is something I can’t put into words.
“I didn’t think I was going to win a medal. My first jump (a season’s best of 5.06m) made me think ‘I’ll take that and just enjoy the experience’ but that put me into second so I got more and more nervous as the rounds went on.
“I realised I was in fourth for the last jump and had to go better than anything I’ve done previously to get a medal. I can’t believe it.
“It has been overwhelming – I’ve never had so many people wanting to have a photo with me and it validates the sport,” she said. “We train so hard for this and the support pushes us to the next level.”
MORE ON THIS STORY AT GAZETTEANDHERALD.CO.UK/SPORT AND IN THURSDAY'S GAZETTE & HERALD
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