Walid Ktila smashes 200m and 800m world records in Dubai

Five world, and 10 regional records were broken on the first two days of competition with double London 2012 Paralympic champion Ktila leading the way.

Tunisia’s world and Paralympic champion wheelchair racer Walid Ktila was in sensational form at the IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Dubai, UAE, over the weekend (22-23 February) smashing the 200m and 800m T34 world records.

Five world, and 10 regional records were broken on the first two days of competition with double London 2012 Paralympic champion Ktila leading the way.

On Sunday, the 28-year-old, who won three world titles in 2013, first broke Australian Rheed McCracken’s two-year-old 800m world record by 1.22 seconds, clocking 1:42.33, before smashing his own 200m world record less than 90 minutes later.

Over the shorter distance Ktila clocked 26.69 to take 0.92 seconds off his previous best set in Lyon, France, at last year’s World Championships. In the same race, Kuwait’s Ahmed Almutairi (30.34) also broke his own T33 world record by 0.05 seconds.

Ktila and Almutairi were not the only athletes in record breaking form over the weekend.

Great Britain’s Maria Lyle (31.01) smashed the 200m T35 world record, beating the previous best set in August 2005 by China’s Ping Liu (32.27), whilst Germany’s Claudia Nicoleitzi – runner-up to Lyle in the 200m – broke the long jump T36 world record.

The 24-year-old 100m T36 world champion leapt 4.09m to add 10cm to her own world record, set in July 2011. In the same event, Japan’s Maya Nikanishi’s leap of 4.95m secured the Asian record beating teammate Mami Sato’s previous best by 0.09m.

Also in the field, and much to the delight of the home crowd, the UAE’s Salem Alkaabi threw 11.98m to set a new club F31 world record.

Staying in the field, Lithuania’s Billius Mindaugas (15.50m) broke the nine-year-old men’s shot put F37 European record by 0.17m, India’s Vikas Dagar (16.22m) set a new Asian record in the men’s shot F43 and Brazil’s Shirlene Coelho threw 28.26m to improve her own women’s discus F37 Americas record set at the 2011 Parapan American Games by 0.62m.

On the track, Uzbekistan’s Fakhriddin Khamraev (4:03.94) broke the 1,500m T13 Asian record with a time of 4:03.94, improving the previous best time set at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics by over seven seconds.

Switzerland’s Marcel Hug secured victories in the 800m (1:35.64) and 1,500m T54 (3:00.48) races and the Netherlands’ Kenny van Weeghel completed the 100m (14.27) and 200m (24.50) T54 sprint double.

In a re-run of last year’s 100m T11 World Championships gold medal race, Brazil’s Terezinha Guilhermina (12.14) again came out on top, finishing well ahead of teammates Jhulia Santos (13.10) in second and Jerusa Santos (13.34) in third.

The IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Dubai continues through to Tuesday (26 February).

This year's Grand Prix series will visit nine countries in four continents with the next event after Dubai taking place in Beijing, China in mid-April. Meetings will then be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Arizona, USA; Nottwil, Switzerland; Grosseto, Italy; Berlin, Germany; and Tunis, Tunisia. The series will climax in late August with the IPC Athletics Grand Prix Finals in Birmingham, Great Britain.