No words to describe what this means: Hall

Adam Hall felt the whole of New Zealand behind him as he chased glory on the slopes.

The Otago skier battled through challenging conditions to produce the run of his life and secure silver in the men’s slalom standing to wrap up the Winter Paralympics in Italy yesterday.

Battling through steady snowfall and poor visibility, Hall finished his first run in a composed 47.80sec to sit fourth, just 0.40sec outside the podium.

Knowing he needed a big second run, Hall burst down the slopes and showed his enduring class when he upped the tempo through the latter parts of the course to jump into medal contention.

It appeared he would be returning home with bronze, but after Jules Segers, of France, could not respond and Italian Federico Pelizzari lost his binding on his ski mid-race, Hall was elevated to silver.

Russian Aleksei Bugaev won gold, reclaiming the title he last won in Sochi in 2014, and Robin Cuche, of Switzerland, rounded out the podium with bronze.

‘‘There are no words to describe what this means,’’ Hall said.

‘‘I put a pounamu under my bib which made me feel like all of New Zealand has been on this journey with me.

‘‘I hope I’ve continued the great legacy of Winter Paralympians, and to have brought home another medal is amazing.’’

Competing in a record-equalling six Paralympics, Hall, who grew up in Outram but now lives in Wanaka, has won six medals to become New Zealand’s most decorated Winter Paralympian alongside Patrick Cooper.

Hall has won four in the slalom standing - two gold, one silver, one bronze - since debuting in Torino in 2006 and was proud of the way he approached the Olimpia delle Tofane slopes. 

‘‘Such a strong, strong competition, strong field and could only be hugely proud of my whole team around me.

‘‘It’s been a long wait to get to here and to come out of that holding pattern and put down a world-class performance like that, especially in that second run in conditions.

‘‘There’s a lot of salt up there, it’s soft and they’ve done an amazing job to actually pull this race off with those conditions.

‘‘It’s the same for everybody but we thrive in those conditions.’’

Corey Peters finished fifth in the men’s giant slalom sitting and downhill sitting, and sixth in the super G sitting.

Hall also finished 22nd in the men’s giant slalom standing.