Towers, Dawson-Farrell take hat tricks at Grand Prix

There was multiple success for Great Britain on Saturday (9 April) at the IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Grosseto, Italy, as Isaac Towers and Meggan Dawson-Farrell both secured a hat trick of wins out on the Tuscan track.

The British wheelchair racers added to their 800m victories from Friday (8 April) with wins over 200m, 400m and 1,500m at the city’s Carlo Zecchini Olympic Stadium.

European medallist Towers (T34) won the men’s 200m T33/34/53/54 in 30.89; the 17-year-old followed that with 59.34 over one lap in the afternoon session before taking the tape in the men’s 1,500m T34/51/53/54 in 3:43.40.

Dawson-Farrell (T54) clinched gold in the women’s 200m T33/53/54 clocking 32.30, then later won the 400m in 1:09.20 before rounding off a terrific day’s racing with victory in the 1,500m T53/54 in 4:03.94.

Fellow Briton Jayden Saberton won the 400m T36/37 (59.38) and teammate James Hamilton took gold in the 1,500m T20 (4:09.70).

There were two heats for the men’s 200m T35/36/37/42/43/44; Great Britain’s world finalist Dave Henson (T42) won the first heat in 26.35 and home favourite Emanuele Di Marino (T44) won the second in 25.36.

Irish para-athlete Orla Comerford (T13) was first across the line in the women’s 200m T13/35/42/43/44/47 (27.23); second place went to Italy’s T43 sprinter Federica Maspero (29.89) and former 100m and 200m T35 world champion Oxana Corso (31.67) finished third with a new Italian record.

There were wins for Iceland’s Patrekur Axelsson (27.86) in the men’s 200m T11; Italy’s Fabio Basile (35.97) in the 200m T12; Austria’s Alexander Pototschnig (T47) won the 200m T46/47 (24.52) and Somalia’s Farhan Hadafo (T52) took the tape in both the men’s 200m T51/52 (38.75) and the 400m T51/52 (1:34.59).

Russia’s Egor Sharov (T13) continued his run of form with a win over 400m to add to his 800m success on Friday.

The world silver medallist clocked 50.25 to finish well clear of his rivals, while his compatriots Artem Muratov, Andrei Kuzmin and Veronika Zotova won the men’s 400m T20 (49.31), men’s 200m T13/20 (23.59) and women’s 200m T12 (29.17) respectively.

Gold in the men’s 400m T43/44-47 went to Ivan Cvekovic of Serbia (54.92).

France’s Laurie Brandel (T20) took gold in the women’s 400m T20/43 (1:03.28) as Italy’s Giuseppina Versace clocked a new Italian T43 record of 1:04.21 to finish in third place.

Ireland secured their second win of the day as Greta Streimikyte (T13) took the tape in the women’s 1,500m T12/13/20 (5:01.78). The men’s 1,500m T11-13/37/46 went to Bayram Yilmaz (4:15.69) of Turkey.

Out in the field Slovakia’s world and European champion Adrian Matusik (F44) showed that he remains the man to beat as he topped the podium in the men’s shot put F40-46.

The 35-year-old managed a final round throw of 14.52m – one of two throws over the 14 metre mark, and more than one metre clear of the rest of the field.

There was a win too for Abdulrahman Abdulrahman in the men’s shot put F34. The Qatari, who won gold at the IPC Athletics Asia Oceania Championships last month, recorded 10.29m with his sixth and final throw.

Czech thrower Eva Berna (F37) made up for her second place finish in the shot put on Friday with a convincing win in the discus throw F11-13 + F35-38 on day two in Italy.

The Paralympic shot put bronze medallist only registered two throws out of a possible six but her second effort of 25.98m was good enough to take the win.

Brazil’s Andre Rocha (F54) won the men’s shot put F52-54 with 9.92m, while only four centimetres separated first and second place in the men’s shot put F32/33 – Athanasi Konstantinidis (F32) of Greece took the win with 7.06m ahead of Italy’s Antonio Puglisi (7.02m).

Italy’s Carmen Acunto (F55) won the women’s javelin F52-57 with a best of 11.66m, following it up in the afternoon session with victory in the discus F51-57, throwing 16.74m.

Serbia’s Nebojsa Duric (F55) followed up his win in the discus on Friday with victory in the men’s shot put F55-57, throwing 11.42m with his fifth attempt to finish over one metre clear of the field. His compatriot Saska Sokolov (F46) also made it two out of two as she won the women’s shot put F40-46 with a best of 8.73m.

A final round effort of 11.60m sealed the win for Frenchwoman Gloria Agblemagnon (F20) in the women’s shot put F11-13/20 while Italy’s Oney Tapia (F11) topped the podium in the men’s event with a best of 12.46m before going to win the discus F11-13 + F35-38 with a final round effort of 38.41m.

Montenegro’s Radmilo Baranin (F34) opened his competition with a throw of 21.13m in the men’s discus F32-34 – that proved enough to seal the win.

The Czech Repubic’s Petr Vratil (F38) threw 38.75m in the men’s javelin F35-38.

Singapore’s Suhairi Bin Suhani leapt 6.39m to take gold in the men’s long jump T20 as Russia’s Aleksandra Ruchkina managed 5.04m in the women’s long jump T20 + T35-38 + T42-47. Second place went to Serbia’s Alexsandra Martinovic (T47) with 4.56m, and Germany’s world silver medallist Franziska Liebhardt (T37) finished third with 4.54m.

The men’s long jump T35-38 + T42-47 was won by Italian Roberto La Barbera (T44) with 6.09m.

Turkey came out on top in the men’s triple jump T20 as Onur Kopuzlu saved his best until last with a hop, skip and jump of 12.28m.

Competition in Grosseto continues on Sunday (10 April).