Warlpiri teenager Telaya Blacksmith ran her way into the T20 400m final at the Paris Paralympics, breaking the Australian and Oceania records in her heat.
And while 16-year-old Telaya did not pick up a medal in Wednesday's final, she has shown she has a bright future in the sport.
“Definitely I want to do it again and see what happens from there," she said.
"It’s just amazing that I got to run in the finals ... it’s the crowd and adrenaline, it’s so much fun.”
She returns to Stade de France in Friday’s Long Jump T20 final.
Early on Tuesday morning (Australian time), Telaya made history as the first Australian woman to contest the 400m T20 and the first to dip under the 58-second barrier over a lap of the track.
"A big congratulations ... Telaya proves she is made of grit," former Olympian Nova Peris posted on social media.
"Let's get behind Telaya!"
Wiradjuri woman Ruby Storm picked up a silver medal in the mixed 4x100m freestyle S14 relay, along with Ben Hance, Jack Ireland and Madeleine McTernan.
Wemba Wemba and Guring-gai woman Amanda Reid could not hide her delight as she continued Australia’s strong form at the velodrome, defending her C1-3 500m time trial Paralympic gold medal in style.
The back-to-back triumph was particularly significant for Reid, who became the first Indigenous Australian to seal a Paralympic gold medal when she won the same race at Tokyo three years ago.
The 28-year-old raced through her two laps on Saturday for a factored time of 36.676.
Reid’s first place added to the two golds won by Korey Boddington and Emily Petricola at the Paris’s National Velodrome 24 hours earlier.
Reid, who has cerebral palsy, told reporters the result was particularly gratifying after she had been plagued by a back injury over the past year.
“That was absolutely amazing considering the 12-plus months I've had,” she said.
“I just came in to go as fast as I could and I ended up going back to back gold, which is amazing.
“This will mean so much more because of everything that I have had to overcome.”
Wakawaka and Gubbi Gubbi woman Samantha Schmidt will compete in discus throw F38, a Paralympic designation signifying a low level impairment of the lower half of the body, at 310am on Saturday AEST.
