Dunedin athlete Holly Robinson trained at Forsyth Barr Stadium in her build-up for the international paralympic athletics world championships in France.
The reward came yesterday when she reached the podium at Lyon with a personal-best throw of 34.37m in the F46 class javelin to claim the silver medal.
It was a personal-best by 1.79m and beat the New Zealand record she set last year when finishing seventh at the London Paralympics. Hollie Arnold (Great Britain) won the world title with a throw of 37.45m.
Robinson (18), an applied science student at Otago Polytechnic, used the stadium for her training during the harshest part of the Dunedin winter when the Caledonian Ground was too wet.
She threw off a concrete slab in the dry and warm conditions inside the stadium.
Robinson shifted to Dunedin from Hokitika three years ago to train with top throwing coach Raylene Bates and was a pupil at Taieri College when she competed at the London Paralympics.
Bates is in France as part of the New Zealand coaching team and sent an email home after Robinson won the silver medal.
''Holly's first throw absolutely nailed it,'' Bates wrote.
''She was leading until the third round when 2011 bronze medallist Hollie Arnold from Great Britain threw a personal-best of 36m. Holly had a good second throw but lost the tip and had she succeeded with that ''who knows?''.
''Arnold came out on the last throw with a new personal best of 37.45m.''
Bates said Rory McSweeney, the other Otago athlete in the team, will be competing in the javelin tomorrow.
Robinson is a carded athlete with Athletics New Zealand and uses the facilities of High Performance Sport New Zealand in Dunedin.
''We are thrilled with what Holly has achieved at the world championships and how she has developed as a high performance athlete since London,'' Excellence in Sport South Island Academy Otago manager Dean Horo said.
''She really is doing the business both at training and now at her pinnacle event for the year under the watchful eye of her coach Raylene Bates. Holly is now a real prospect for a medal in Rio in three years' time.
''Holly is one of six Academy Otago Talent Accelerator athletes from the year 2 group of nine athletes who are competing at open world or junior world championships overseas at present.
''Holly's silver medal is certainly a highlight for the group to date.
''We have our fingers crossed also for medal performances from Zoe McBride and Liam Aitcheson at the junior world championships in rowing and track cycling in the coming weeks.''
Robinson, who was born with a left arm shortened just below the elbow, has her sights on the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
