Kiwi Skiier Wins Gold At Winter Paralympics

New Zealand Paralympic skier Adam Hall won the gold medal in the standing
slalom at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Paralympic Games despite taking a tumble
a third of the way down the course and looking like the medal had passed him
by.

He corrected himself after the fall and still finished nearly a second ahead
of his nearest competitor and says he just had to get on with the race and
focus on completing it rather than seeing a medal disappear out of reach.

"When I finished I thought I'd be lucky to be on the podium. I looked at the
scoreboard to see my name and country on top. It was a pretty awesome thing.
It really was a bit of a nail biter. I had a good second run, but a bit of a
hiccup. I left the last four years of training up on the hill," says Hall.
"I didn't really have time to think about the fall. I just had to get on
with it."

Hall, 21 from Otago finished his second run in a combined time of 1minute
45.40 seconds with German Gerad Schonfelder .57 of a second further back for
the silver medal and Australian Cameron Rahles-Rahbula in third.

Hall had earlier set himself up for the medal with a run of 50.95 seconds to
lead after the first run, which was 2.1 seconds ahead of his nearest rival
Rahles-Rahbula.

"There's been a lot of support for me from the team, family, friends and all
of the country behind me. It's outstanding really. All the effort has paid
off," says Hall who has spina bifida and comments that he 'skis better than
he walks'.

Hall has three more events to take part in which are all scheduled to be
held this weekend or early next week - Super G, Super Combined and Giant
Slalom.

New Zealand last won a medal at a Paralympics Winter Games in 2002 at Salt
Lake City

Auckland skier Peter Williams is next up for the New Zealanders with the
seated Giant Slalom to be raced on Wednesday.

New Zealand team Chef de Mission Jon Turnbull can be contacted on the number
below.

www.paralympics.org.nz

http://www.vancouver2010.com/paralympic-games/