Doha, Oct 28, 2015: Cuba’s Omara Durand smashed her own 100m T12 world record in emphatic style as she was one of three athletes on Wednesday (28 October) to seal a hat-trick of titles at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha, Qatar.
The 23-year-old, who broke the 200m and 400m world records earlier in the week to land gold, cruised to the win over the shorter sprint in 11.48 seconds, 0.17 faster than her previous best set at August’s Parapan American Games.
“I have won three gold medals, I am the happiest in the world, three is the magic number!” said Durand who finished well ahead of Azerbaijan’s Elena Chebanu (11.94) in silver and Ukraine’s Oxana Boturchuk (11.96) in bronze.
China’s Cuiqing Liu (12.43) celebrated her 24th birthday by claiming the 100m T11 title, to add to her 200m and 400m crowns. Brazil took silver and bronze through Jerusa Geber Santos (12.57) and Jhulia Santos (12.79).
“I am really excited and happy to have won my third consecutive gold medal. I know that everything is possible as long as I give it my all and work hard. I must thank my guide for this success. We’re like brothers and sisters and share full confidence in each other,” said Liu.
Walid Ktila (15.75) is still on course to complete the double quadruple after he added 100m T34 gold to the 400m and 800m titles he has already won in Doha. The Tunisian, who won four world titles at Lyon 2013, set a championship record to hold off the UAE’s Mohamed Hammadi (15.92) and Switzerland’s Bojan Mitic (16.17) into silver and bronze respectively.
“I have just won my third gold medal for Tunisia and I am very happy and proud of that,” said Ktila. “This result is due to a lot of hard work, now I will be working towards my fourth gold medal.”
Great Britain produced the first clean sweep of the podium at Doha 2015 in the women’s 800m T34. Hannah Cockroft (2:07.10) powered home to victory with 150m to go having sat on the wheel of 14-year-old teammate Kare Adenegan (2:09.66) for most of the race. Adenegan tired in the final stages and settled for bronze with Mel Nicholls (2:09.29) leaving it late to secure the silver.
“I can’t quite believe it, I have been so nervous about this competition, but I gave it all that I had and I won the gold medal! It’s a team GB top three as well, so it’s incredible,” said an elated Cockroft.
Richard Whitehead (24.10) equalled his own 24-hour-old world record to win his third successive 200m T42 world title for Great Britain with a now traditional surge to the line from the halfway point. Russia’s Anton Prokhorov (24.85) and Denmark’s Daniel Jorgensen (25.37) claimed silver and bronze respectively.
On a good night for Great Britain, Aled Davies secured double Doha 2015 gold by retaining his discus F42 title, breaking his own world record twice in the process. His winning throw of 49.59m placed him ahead of China’s Guofeng Kang (43.27m) and Bulgaria’s Dechko Ovcharov (42.31m).
Marie Amelie le Fur (59.31m) delivered one of the performances of Doha 2015 so far as she became the first female leg amputee to go under 60 seconds in winning the women’s 400m T44.
“Tonight there were perfect conditions to break the world record,” said le Fur who, despite starting in lane eight, took 1.5 seconds off the previous record. “My goal was to run under 60 seconds, and I wanted to go for the gold. The field was very strong, but I am so happy to be victorious.”
Germany’s Irmgard Bensusan (1:03.27), the former record holder could only manage silver, whilst an Americas record by the USA’s Gracie Norman (1:03.83) was good enough for bronze.
In the very next race, Morocco’s Mohamed Amguoun (47.83) took 0.05 seconds off the men’s 400m T13 world record to top the podium. In a thrilling finish he accelerated in the last 50m as his rivals tired. Russia’s Egor Sharov (48.82) broke the European record for silver, whilst bronze went to Namibia’s Johannes Nambala.
The medallists in the women’s 200m T47 were separated by just 0.15 seconds. Cuba’s most successful Paralympian Yunidis Castillo (25.43) was the winner, her ninth world title, as she edged out the USA’s Deja Young (25.53) into silver. Bronze went to South Africa’s 400m gold medallist Anrune Liebenberg (25.58).
Ahmad Almutairi’s (17.53) gold in the men’s 100m T33 was Kuwait’s first world medal of any kind since 2002. He lowered his own championship record to finish well ahead of the British duo of Daniel Bramall (18.98) and Toby Gold (19.27).
“Thank god I managed to do well and get the gold medal, my first ever world championship medal. I was still off from my own world record by quite a bit but I think that’s mostly due to the wind. I now dream of getting a medal at the Paralympic Games next year in Rio,” said Almutairi.
Poland’s Barbara Niewiedzial (2:22.09) completed the T20 middle distance double with victory in the women’s 800m. The Dutch pair of Mariia Koltcova (2:24.38) and Shirley Kerkhove (2:24.81) took silver and bronze.
The men’s version of the race was won by Russia’s Alexander Rabotnitskiy (1:53.63) who was pushed all the way to the line by Venezuela’s Luis Arturo Paiva (1:53.90). Bronze went to Russia’s Dmitrii Makarov (1:57.14) and all three medallists set personal bests.
Chinese athletes made the headlines in the field on Wednesday winning three titles and setting two new world records.
Pengxiang Sun (43.67m) broke the world record in the men’s javelin F41, adding more than six metres to his personal best. He topped the podium ahead of Iraq’s Kovan Abdulraheem (40.93m) and Great Britain’s Kyron Duke (37.99m).
Gold in the women’s shot put F44 went to Juan Yao (13.14m) who added nine centimetres to her previous world record. The other two medallists – China’s Yue Yang and Germany’s Frederike Charlotte Koleiski – both threw 11.75m, but the Chinese athlete took silver due to having the longest second put.
“This is my second gold medal, so I am really happy. It feels amazing to break the world record,” said Yao who won Sunday’s discus event.
Paralympic champion Fuliang Liu (7.19m) retained his long jump T47 title with an Asian record in the final round. The USA’s Roderick Townsend-Roberts (7.08m) and Indonesia’s Setiyo Budihartanto (6.95m) were the other medallists.
South Africa’s Reinhardt Hamman (50.06m) left it late to retain his men’s javelin F38 world title claiming gold with a championship record in the final round. Ukraine’s Oleksandr Doroshenko (48.44m), who looked set to win his second gold after shot put success earlier in the week, settled for silver. The Czech Republic’s Petr Vratil (46.17m) claimed bronze.
Russia’s Zhanna Fekolina (4.79m) won the women’s long jump F37 with a championship record in the second round. Germany continued their form in the pit with Franziska Liebhardt (4.57m) taking silver fractionally ahead of Russia’s Anna Sapozhnikova (4.56m).
Svetlana Krivenok (6.30m) of Russia threw a season’s best to claim the women’s shot put F33 by nearly a metre from Australia’s silver medallist Brydee Moore (5.31m). Greece’s Anthi Liagkou (4.85m) picked up bronze.
In the final event of the night, Germany won gold and bronze. Marie Buggenhagen (25.40m) topped the podium and was joined by teammate Marie Hawkeswood (20.09m). China’s Feixia Dong (22.74m) took silver. —- IPC
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