Anna Nicholson overcame a Stade de France downpour to win a maiden Paralympic medal with bronze in the women's shot put.

The heavens opened and shone down upon the Brit who threw a best attempt of 9.44m to take third behind Ukraine's Mariia Pomazan and China's Jun Wang.

Nicholson admitted that success was not without its challenges as the weather conditions played havoc on the field and on her practice throws.

But in true British fashion, she fended off the rain and soared onto the podium in Paris.

"It's worth all the hard work that I've put in for the past 10 years," said Nicholson, who is part of Aldi’s Nearest and Dearest programme in partnership with ParalympicsGB, helping to maximise support and minimise potential distractions for athletes so that they can focus on their performance.

"It was difficult in the rain. It was always set to rain on the forecast, so I did some training in it, and I knew that I still had some big throws, but it was heavier than I was expecting.

"My first practice throw was absolutely shocking, and I fell out of the circle, so I just needed to reset and calm down.

"I knew I had a big throw in me so to have made it work in the conditions, I'm over the moon."

Bronze marks an impressive improvement from Nicholson in the three years since her Paralympic debut in Tokyo.

The shot putter finished sixth that time round whilst fourth place finishes at the 2019 and 2023 world championships kept her just short of the podium.

And after a year of personal bests raining down on her, with a new best of 9.47m set at the World Para Athletics Grad Prix, Nicholson was over the moon to see her season come to a fairytale ending in Paris having finally reached the podium on the biggest stage of all.

"Tokyo was a really hard year getting back in after training was so disrupted from Covid," she said.

"The last three years, I've been on fire and training so hard. We looked at what all my weaknesses are and tried to pull that into my training.

"This year has been such a good year with PBs galore, and I knew that if I went out and did what I could do then there was a chance of a medal.

"It feels absolutely amazing, I don't think I will believe it until I get that medal around my neck."

Aldi are proud Official Partners of Team GB & ParalympicsGB, supporting all athletes through to Paris 2024.