For immediate release
January 26, 2011

Four world records; China take four golds at IPC Athletics

China dominated the fifth morning of the IPC Athletics World Championships, winning four of the 12 gold medals on offer. Four new world records were also set during the session.

Daniel Greaves (Great Britain), Michael McKillop (Ireland), Algeria’s Sofiance Hamdi and Cuba’s Omara Durand all set new world records.

Greaves was the dominant performance of the morning. He smashed his own world record by more than three metres in the F44 discus. His throw of 58.98m eclipsed his previous mark of 55.53m set in Manchester six years. Jeremy Campbell (United States) took silver with a throw of 53.40m with the bronze going to Farzad Sepahvand, of Iran.

It was a good morning for China. Duan Ll (China) waited until his final leap to snatch gold in the men’s F11 triple jump. The world record holder was trailing Russian Andrey Koptev by 0.35m before his final effort of 12.93m to win by 0.28m. American Elexis Gillette was third.

Xuelong Zhang continued China’s domination with a win in the men’s javelin F37/38 with a throw of 53/04m, a new championships record. Iran’s Javad Hardani took the silver from Petr Vratil of the Czech Republic

China set another championship record in the women’s F11 shot put with Liangmin Zhang easily defeating the field with a throw of 9.61m, nearly two metres ahead of Venezuela’s Yuclesy Pinto and Colombia’s YM Restrepo Munoz.

And not to be outdone, countryman Huzhao Li won the men’s 200m T53 final in another new championship record of 26.64secs. Canada’s Brent Lakatos took silver with Great Britain’s Michael Bushell winning bronze.

McKillop, with only two in the 1500m T35 field, led from the gun, easily defeating runner-up Khaled Hannani, of Algeria.

Durand was extremely impressive in the women’s 200m T13 event, winning by over a second in 24.24secs. Second was Sanae Benhama (Morocco) and Ilse Hayes was third.

South African Fanie Van Der Merwe had the mortification of not only getting nosed out of the gold medal but also having his world record taken away by Algeria’s Sofiance Hamdi in the men’s 200m T37 final. Both went under the old time with the Algerian winning by 0.03secs in 23.64secs. Mostafa Fathalla Mohamed (Egypt) was third.

Australia’s Evan O’Hanlon could not match his world record, but he set a new championship time of 22.31secs in winning the T38 200m event from Tunisia’s Mohamed Farhat Chida and China’s Wenjun Zhou.

In one of the tightest finishes of the morning Thailand’s Supachai Koysub just pipped Finland’s Leo Pekka Tahti by 0.02secs in the men’s 200m T54 event in a time of 25.23secs. China’s Yanfeng Cui was third.

Abderrahim Zhiou (Tunisia) almost broke the four-minute barrier in winning the men’s 1500 T12 in a time of 4:00.87. He was two seconds clear of Kenya’s Henry Kirwa with Spain’s Ignacio Avila taking bronze.

Karol Wojciech Kozun (Poland) was too strong in the men’s shot put F54/55/56. His throw of 11.58m (985pts) was just ahead of Serbia’s Drazenko Mitrovic, who set a championship record for his F54 class with a throw of 9.96m (979pts). Third was Ulrich Iser, of Germany.

In total 33 World records and 99 Championship records have been set over the four days.

For the latest Championship results, please visit the official website at
www.ipcathleticsworldchamps.com/results.php

To find out more about the athletes competing in Christchurch please visit
the Biographies section of the IPC Athletics website
at http://ipc-athletics.paralympic.org/Athletes_Biographies/

Throughout the event, www.ParalympicSport.TV will be broadcasting live
coverage of the evening sessions between 2am and 6am GMT.

You can also catch highlights from the previous day on
www.youtube.com/paralympicsporttv

In addition to the live coverage from Christchurch, Paralympic sports fans
can also get the latest news, gossip and pictures from the World
Championships via the IPC's official Facebook
page www.facebook.com/ParalympicSportTV and Twitter page
www.twitter.com/paralympic

Tickets to see the IPC Athletics World Championships, which run until 30
January are still available to buy can be purchased
from www.ticketdirect.co.nz Adult tickets cost just $10 per day.

ENDS

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