Wheelchair sprinter Jessica Lewis began her campaign at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics by finishing last of six in her T53 800 metres heat in the Olympic Stadium tonight — albeit in a personal-best time.

The result was not good enough to qualify the Bermudian for the final tomorrow morning, as only the top three finishers plus the two fastest losers advanced.

However, Lewis will not be overly disappointed because the 800 has been long seen as an event to get the competitive cobwebs out after a period of inactivity in advance of her primary event — the T53 100 metres final on Wednesday morning.

She will also be gratified in completing the two-lap race in 1min 57.77sec, knocking almost half a second off her previous best.

Lewis’s 100 metres speed came to the fore in the early stages of the race, as she managed to cross over in fourth after starting out wide assigned to lane eight.

But she was in a heat that contained a few accomplished performers, and it was they who took over once the bell went off to signify the final lap.

Paralympic record-holder Zhou Hongzhuan, of China, dominated the early stages and looked every bit the winner until Turkey’s Hamide Dogangun made good ground on her inside and won out in a sprint.

The winning time was 1:51.05, with Zhou second in 1:51.16 and Catherine Debrunner, of Switzerland, third in 1:51.47.

Australian Angela Ballard was fourth in 1:52.50 and American Chelsea McClammer fifth in 1:52.69. They go through into the final as the fastest losers.

Heat one was won by world champion Madison de Rozario, of Australia, in 1:49.21. Samantha Kinghorn, of Great Britain, was second in 1:50.83 and Hoang Yen, of the United States, third in 1:51.49.