Nichols finishes seventh at Paralympic Games

FARMINGTON — Alana Nichols’ bid to become the first American athlete to win gold medals in three different sports came up short when the Farmington native finished seventh in the paracanoe final at the 2016 Paralympic Games this morning in Rio de Janeiro.

Nichols, a 2001 Farmington High School graduate, reached the women’s KL2 final after advancing out of the first heat with a time of 1:03.861, then placing fourth in the semifinal and shaving 1.586 seconds off her heat time. Both the heat race and semifinal were held Wednesday morning.

Nichols raced in lane one during the final and posted her best time of the games, finishing in 1:00.315.

Great Britain’s Emma Wiggs won gold with a time of 53.288. Ukrainian Nataliia Lagutenko won silver and Australian Susan Seipel took the bronze.

KL2 is the classification for athletes with partial trunk or leg function. This year’s games was the first to feature paracanoe.

Nichols had won gold medals in wheelchair basketball in 2008, and downhill giant slalom skiing and downhill skiing in 2010.