What a fantastic Paralympics we have just witnessed in Rio – it was truly inspirational to see all the athletes competing and achieving so highly in their chosen sports.

The NZ athletes obviously achieved beyond all expectations by winning more medals than what had been targeted, and it’s fair to say the Northland connections in the NZ team also over-achieved.

Whangarei’s Cameron Leslie led the way with a gold medal in his favoured 150m individual medley event, and in doing so achieved his own ‘three-peat’, having won this event at both the London (2012) and Beijing (2008) Paralympics.

To see the underwater television coverage of him doing his turns at the end of the pool was amazing to watch – he really is an incredible athlete who can swim all three disciplines of his event (backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle) better than most able-bodied people.

It was also great to see Emma Foy, originally from Dargaville, competing so well in cycling on both the track and the road. As a visually impaired athlete, she won a silver medal and a bronze medal with her sighted partner Laura Thompson on a tandem bike, an incredible achievement at her first Paralympics.

Considering Emma has not even started competitive cycling when the last Paralympics was being held in 2012, she has had a rapid into the high performance system which has resulted in two medals at the highest level of her sport.

The third Northlander competing at Rio was Chris Sharpe and he was special in his own right for not only was he also competing in his first-ever Paralympics, he was also NZ’s oldest team member at 58 years young.

Chris has a background in sailing and sail-making earlier in his life, but after an accident four years ago which eventuated in Chris becoming a paraplegic, he took up sailing again as part of the three person keelboat event (Sonar). Like Emma, a rapid rise in his chosen sport has seen him debut at these Paralympics and what a fairy-tale it would have been if he had got up to take bronze in his event.

As it was he and his crew recorded a very credible fourth placing.

So there you have it – three Northlanders and a full complement of Paralympic medals – gold, silver and bronze, with a fourth placing thrown in!

These Paralympics seemed to capture the attention of the NZ public more than previous games due, I think, to the personalities of athletes like blade-runner Liam Malone, swimmer Sophie Pascoe and teenager Anna Grimaldi – it was compelling viewing that had everything that able-bodied sport has, and a lot more to boot.

Congratulations to all the NZ athletes and especially to our three Northlanders – you certainly did the region proud!