Berlin Grand Prix: Five talking points

The 2018 World Para Athletics Grand Prix season came to end last weekend (30 June- 1 July) with the final event in Berlin, Germany.

Here are the headlines:

World records continue for incredible Gomes

Two weeks after breaking the discus F52 world record at the Paris Grand Prix, Brazilian Elizabeth Gomes added two more – setting new marks in the shot put and javelin F52. Both records had previously stood for more than five years.

Brazilians on fire

It wasn’t just Gomes in record-breaking form – double world champion Thiago Paulino dos Santos added 49cm to the previous men’s discus F57 mark and star sprinter Petrucio Ferreira shaved 0.04 seconds off his 200m T47 world record. Paralympic champion Ricardo Costa de Oliveira saw off world champion Lex Gillette in the long jump T11; Fabio Da Silva Bodignon, Jerusa Geber Santos, Vinicius Rodrigues, Daniel Martins and Mateus Cardoso were also among the winners.

New world records for Kathuniya and Riech

India’s Yogesh Kathuniya and Canada’s Nate Riech also broke two world records in two days. Kathuniya smashed the discus F36 world record on Saturday, before adding nearly six metres on to the previous javelin F36 world record on Sunday. Riech re-wrote the history books in the T38 middle distances, clocking new 800m and 1,500m world records. He knocked nearly eight seconds off Australian Deon Kenzie's 1,500m time set last year while in the 800m, his time of 1:57.78 took more than one second off South African Malcolm Pringle’s mark which had stood since 2004.

Europeans lay down marker ahead of Berlin 2018

Luxembourg’s Tom Habscheid improved his own world lead in the men’s shot put F63 with a throw of 14.79m, and Poland’s track and field stars also made their mark. Tomasz Paulinski Maciej Sochal, Karolina Strawinska and Maciej Lepiato all won in the field while world and European champion Joanna Mazur finished first in the women’s 5,000m T11. Turkish duo Oguz Akbulut and Mehmet Oner were among the winners as was Finland’s Henry Manni.

African athletes in superb form

South Africa’s Louzanne Coetzee knocked 14 seconds off her previous 5,000m T11 world record with a new time of 18:00.34; her compatriot Situ Ntombizanele was just three centimetres away from recording the longest throw of the year in the women’s javelin F54. Namibia’s Paralympic champion Ananais Shikongo won the men’s 200m T11 and his teammate Johannes Nambala won the 400m T13. Morocco’s Azeddine Nouiri won the men’s javelin F34.

*world records subject to ratification by World Para Athletics