For immediate release
January 26, 2011

Singleton pips Pistorius in epic 100m at IPC Athletics

A lunging dive at the line by American Jerome Singleton was enough to give him the narrowest of victories over Oscar Pistorious in the T44 100m final at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch.

Both recorded the relatively slow time of 11.34secs, but after a long deliberation, the nod went to Singleton.

³There¹s a lot of me that won¹t be leaving New Zealand,² Singleton said in reference to the amount of skin he lost in diving for the line. ³But it was all worth it.²

Not as quick away as he would have liked, Singleton was all out to hold the barn-storming finish of the South African, who was gracious in defeat.

³He (Singleton) was the better man on the day. He has been improving all the time and he is a champion in the making,² Pistorius said after the event. The men¹s 4 X 100m relay on Saturday will be a beauty.

There were six world records today and China led the way in the medal tally with four golds.

Daniel Greaves (Great Britain), Michael McKillop (Ireland), Algeria¹s Sofiance Hamdi, Yohansson Nascimento of Brazil, Russia¹s Alexey Ashapatov and Cuba¹s Omara Durand all set new world records.

Greaves was the dominant performance of the day. 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 ago. Jeremy Campbell (United States) took silver with a throw of 53.40m with the bronze going to Farzad Sepahvand, of Iran.

Yohansson Nascimento of Brazil was responsible for the most enthusiastic victory performance with a triple cartwheel to celebrate his gold medal and world record in the men¹s 100m T46 in 11.01sec. He beat the old record by 0.04secs. Second was China¹s Ni Guo and Arnaud Assoumani of France was third.

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 women¹s 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 Algeria¹s Hamdi in the men¹s 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.

Ashapatov was leading going into the last round of the men¹s F57/58 discus, but put it beyond doubt with a world record 57.64m, 0.03m better than the old mark. Egypt¹s Metawa Abo Elkhir was second and the bronze went to Ali Ghardooni.

Brazil¹s Terezinha Guilhermina won her third gold with an easy victory in the T11 400m. Her time of 57.16secs was a championship record. Tracey Hinton (Great Britain) took the silver medal and Adrian Rocha Santos (Brazil) was third.

It was a good morning for China. Duan Li (China) waited until his final leap to snatch gold in the men¹s 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 China¹s domination with a win in the men¹s javelin F37/38 with a throw of 53/04m, a new championships record. Iran¹s Javad Hardani took the silver from Petr Vratil of the Czech Republic.

China set another championship record in the women¹s F11 shot put with Liangmin Zhang easily defeating the field with a throw of 9.61m, nearly two metres ahead of Venezuela¹s Yuclesy Pinto and Colombia¹s YM Restrepo Munoz.

And not to be outdone, countryman Huzhao Li won the men¹s 200m T53 final in another new championship record of 26.64secs. Canada¹s Brent Lakatos took silver with Great Britain¹s Michael Bushell winning bronze.

Australia¹s Evan O¹Hanlon could not match his world record, but he set a new championship time of 22.31secs in winning the T38 200m event from Tunisia¹s Mohamed Farhat Chida and China¹s Wenjun Zhou.

In one of the tightest finishes of the morning Thailand¹s Supachai Koysub just pipped Finland¹s Leo Pekka Tahti by 0.02secs in the men¹s 200m T54 event in a time of 25.23secs. China¹s Yanfeng Cui was third.

Abderrahim Zhiou (Tunisia) almost broke the four-minute barrier in winning the men¹s 1500 T12 in a time of 4:00.87. He was two seconds clear of Kenya¹s Henry Kirwa with Spain¹s Ignacio Avila taking bronze.

Karol Wojciech Kozun (Poland) was too strong in the men¹s shot put F54/55/56. His throw of 11.58m (985pts) was just ahead of Serbia¹s Drazenko Mitrovic, who set a championship record for his F54 class with a throw of 9.96m (979pts). Third was Ulrich Iser, of Germany.

France¹s Maria Amelie Lefur won her second gold medal in two days with victory in the women¹s 100m T44, from Katrin Green (Germany) and April Holmes (USA) in a time of 13.19secs.

Russia was first and third in the women¹s T36 100m with Elena Ivanovea holding out Great Britain¹s Hazel Robson in a time of 14.39secs. Aygyul Sakhibzadaeva took the bonze medal.

Viktoriya Kravchenko (Ukraine) led the way in the women¹s 100m T37 in a time of 14.21secs. The silver medal went to Maria Seifert (Germany) and Great Britain¹s Katrina Hart was third.

Ukraine had further success in the women¹s 100m T38 with Inna Dyachenko setting a championship record of 13.49secs from Margarita Koptilova (Russia) and Sonia Mansour of Tunisia.

Germany¹s Heinrich Popow set a championship record in winning the men¹s 100m T42 in 12.56secs. France¹s Clavel Kayitare was second and Atsushi Yamamoto of Japan won the bronze.

Another to set a championship record was Michelle Stilwell (Canada) in the women¹s T52 400m in a time of 1:12.71secs. Kerry Morgan (United States) was second and Teruyo Tanaka (Japan) took the bronze.

The jumping pit was also the scene of another championship record with Spain¹s JA Exposito leaping 7.19m in the men¹s F20 long jump. Silver medallist was Portugal¹s Lenine Cunha with Poland¹s Jacek Kolodzie third.

Samir Nouioua (Algeria) was also in championship record mood with his win in the T46 800m in 1:53.14secs. Silver went to Poland¹s Marcin Awizen and Guenther Matzinger (Austria) was third.

Mateusz Michalski (Poland) comfortably won the men¹s 100m T12 event in 11.05secs, defeating Azerbaijan¹s Elchin Muradov and Josiah Jamison of the United States.

Shirlene Coelho capped a very good day for Brazil with victory in the women¹s F38 javelin from China¹s Qianqian Jia and Lithuniana¹s Ramune Adomaitiene.

The final event of the night, the men¹s T54 1500m, was a cliffhanger. England¹s David Weir was a decisive winner in 3:10.93secs with Switzerland¹s Marcel Hug and Thailand¹s Saichon Konjen both recording 3:11.13secs. After close study Hug was awarded the silver medal.

In total 35 World records and 103 Championship records have been set over the five 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

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