KYRON Duke had to settle for sixth place in the final of the men’s F41 javelin at the Paralympic Games in Rio today, despite throwing a new lifetime best.

Cwmbran’s Duke, fifth in the shot put last Thursday, threw 39.30m in the penultimate round of the competition, which was won by Iraq’s Kovan Abdulraheem with 42.85m.

Meanwhile, Ponthir cyclist James Ball, a late call-up to the British team, rode to fifth in the men’s B 1000m time trial.

For Duke, 23, he went one better than London 2012 when he finished seventh in the javelin, also with a personal best.

And he again saved his best for the final in Brazil, backing up his 39.30m with two more throws over 38 metres.

World and European honours don’t seem to be a problem for Duke but he is still waiting for his maiden Paralympics medal after four competitions across two Games without one.

Another Iraqi athlete, Wildan Nukhailawi, took the silver medal and China’s world champion Sun Pengxiang claimed bronze.

At the velodrome, Ball and tandem pilot Craig Maclean were briefly in contention for a medal after recording a time of 1:02.316mins.

But they were overtaken by the last four riders, including gold medallist Tristan Bangma of the Netherlands, Britain’s Neil Fachie, who took second, and third-placed Kai-Christian Kruse from Germany.

Ball and Maclean got their four-lap run off to a superb start and looked set to go into the lead, but they were unable to maintain their high tempo and couldn’t beat the time of Dutch riders Stephen de Vries and Patrick Bos.