Doha 2015 prediction panel

With just five days left until the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships get underway in Doha, Qatar on the 21 October, we have asked a panel of experts to share their thoughts with us on six hot topics.

Our ‘Doha Prediction Panel’ has a mix of journalists, coaches, and a former Paralympic champion. As we count down to Doha each day our panel will give their answers to a specific question.

Doha Prediction Panel

Ed Harry - BBC World Service athletics commentator

Guido Bonsen – Head coach of the Dutch para-athletics team

Danny Crates – Former Paralympic, world and European 800m T46 champion and now Paralympic commentator for British television’s Channel 4.

Iryna Dvoskina – Australian Institute of Sport para-athletics coach to multiple world champions

Jan-Willem Buijs – Journalist and reporter for www.parasportreport.com

We start today with our first question:

Which young athletes – under 20-years-old – will you be looking out for in Doha?

Ed Harry

Kare Adenegan is the youngest member of the British squad at 14 years of age, she is a T34 wheelchair athlete who has got us all very excited. Her defeat of Hannah Cockcroft over 400m at the end of September was Cockcroft's first loss in any race for seven years. It makes that T34 classification so much more interesting now because we can't take it for granted that it'll be Cockcroft versus the clock. But I won't, in the BBC's reporting, seek to heap any pressure on Adenegan, for whom these Worlds should be primarily about gaining experience.

Guido Bonsen

Of course the youngsters of our own team Lara Baars (shot put T40), Nynke Timmer (100m & 200m T35), Desiree Vranken (100m, 400m & 800m T34) and Fleur Jong (100m & 200m T43) but also, after her recent winning against the ‘unbeatable’ Hannah Cockroft, young Kare Adenegan. Young new fresh faces with nothing to lose but so much to win are one of the things I love about sport.

Danny Crates

The young athletes are what makes Paralympic sport so exciting and unpredictable, Sophie Hahn taking Goncharova’s crown in 2013 is a great example. Sophie was my British athlete of the championships. Far too often can a senior established athlete become complacent. So rather than pick a name, I can assure you, there will be champions that many of us have never seen or heard of, YET!!!!!

Iryna Dvoskina

To be honest I am more looking forward to look out for athletes who are between 20 – 25 years old. This is because I think that performance increases along with the physiological development of young athletes (under 20). In this case I will be looking out for American T11 sprinter David Brown.

Jan-Willem Buijs

Great Britain’s Maria Lyle will certainly be an athlete to watch. It is incredible what she already achieved at such a young age. Last year she was one of the stars in the European Championships in Swansea.

T34 wheeler Desiree Vranken from The Netherlands is also an athlete to look out for as a London 2012 bronze medallist over 200m. She now does well over 400m and 800m. This year she already won at the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels.

If you disagree with the panel, why not send us your views with a tweet to @IPCAthletics using #Doha2015.

Around 1,300 athletes from 100 countries will be in Doha, Qatar, for the IPC Athletics World Championships between 21-31 October. You can watch all the action live at the event website.