The 36-year-old – who took the discus crown in Sydney eight years ago – looked set to repeat his Australian heroics after six successful throws.

However, the Mansfield Harrier had to settle for silver after Latvian Aigars Apinis pulled off a last-gasp world record throw of 20.47m to claim gold.

"It was all going so well but what can you do?" he said. "Coming to Beijing was always about gold and I thought I'd done enough to achieve it – all I could do was hope he didn't beat my distance.

"It was like watching a bad horror movie and peeking out from behind the settee and it wasn't the greatest ending.

"Deep down I came here with only one ambition – I felt terrible after not medaling in Athens, but you can't have any regrets about silver.

"I'm already the elder statesman of the team and I'm taking things year by year, but if my body can hold out, maybe I'll be back, I suppose I'm in the flow now."

Neverthesless, the Mansfield Harrier's throw of 28.37m was a new Paralympics record in his class

Nottingham-born Martin recently returned to competitive action following a brief retirement.

After competing in Athens in 2004 Chris called it a day, but tried his hand in competition again in 2007 and found he was still capable of a world class performance, throwing a distance that was ranked in the top three in the world.

He confirmed his place in the Great Britain team with a world record throw at the British Open Championships in Manchester in June.

Chris now lives in Mansfield and has a degree in computer studies from Nottingham Trent University.

Mansfield table tennis ace Arnie Chan saw his Paralympic dream end in heartache after he failed to qualify out of the group stages in the Far East.

The 51-year-old – who was competing in his sixth Games – ended his campaign with back-to-back defeats against Spain's Tomas Pinas and Sweden's Orjan Kylevik.

Meanwhile, Nova Centurion Sam Hynd proved he can handle the world stage with an impressive swim in the S8 100m freestyle final.

The Mansfield-born star clocked a personal best time and new British record of 1.01.04 minutes as he finished sixth with home favourite Xiaofu Wang setting a new Games record to take gold.

Hynd is the 400m freestyle world record holder while no European has ever gone quicker in the 200m individual medley and with both events still to come the 17-year-old is ready to deliver.

"I am happy with that," he said. "A new PB is the perfect start ahead of a big week."

He is back in the pool tomorrow for the 100m breast stroke event.

Swimmer Charlotte Henshaw does not start her programme until Friday.

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