16 Mar 2010

NZ paralympic skier takes gold in slalom

8:19 pm on 16 March 2010

New Zealand skier Adam Hall has won a gold medal in the slalom at the Winter Paralympics in Vancouver.

Hall, who suffers from spina bifida and has his skis bound together, had a two-second lead after the first leg but fell during his second run at Whistler Creekside on Monday.

The Otago 22 year old managed to complete the course to score a close victory over German Gerd Schonfelder in a time of 1min 45.40s. Schonfelder was 0.57 of a second further back.

Australian Cameron Rahles-Rahbula took the bronze.

Hall has two more events at the weekend - his next best event, the super combined and the super G.

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