Doha 2015: Preview of Sunday afternoon’s action

Sunday (25 October) afternoon’s action on day four of the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha, Qatar, will feature 19 medal events with star names such as Brent Lakatos, Richard Browne , Terezinha Guilhermina and Omara Durand all in action.

First up in the men’s 200m T53 is Canada’s Lakatos who will be looking to complete the sprint double, having won 100m gold on Thursday. The 35-year-old will also be aiming to break Chris Waddell of the USA’s 11-year-old world record which stands at 25.24.

In the very next race, Brazil’s Guilhermina will be hoping to bounce back in the women’s 200m T11 after a surprise loss over 400m to China’s Cuiqing Liu on Friday. Guilhermina leads this year’s world rankings and qualified fastest for the final but will not be taking a fourth successive 200m world title for granted, especially after Liu set a new Asian record in the semi-finals.

After qualifying fastest for the men’s 200m T44 final on Saturday, the USA’s Richard Browne said he will be looking to win his first world title by lowering his own world record of 21.62. With Brazil’s Paralympic champion Alan Oliveira and Germany’s European gold medallist Felix Streng also starting, a world record may be required by Browne to take gold.

Cuba’s Omara Durand is arguably the most in-form para-athlete on the planet. At August’s Toronto 2015 Parapan American Games she broke the 100m and 200m world records and already in Doha she has set new fastest times over 200m and 400m. Durand will line-up in the women’s 200m T12 fully confident of landing her second gold.

The men’s 200m T47 will pit two great rivals against each other. Poland’s European champion Michal Derus qualified fastest for the final but will face a hard fight against the man who denied him the world title two years ago, Brazil’s Paralympic champion Yohansson Nascimento.

Australia’s Scott Reardon will start as strong favourite to retain his 100m T42 crown after qualifying fastest in this morning’s heats. In 2013, the 25-year-old tied for gold with Heinirch Popow, but the German Paralympic champion is absent from Doha 2015 due to injury.

Also in the 100m, Finland’s Paralympic champion Leo Pekka Tahti qualified fastest in this morning’s heats in the T54 class and will be optimistic of landing his third successive world title over the distance.

In the field, the men’s javelin F54 is expected to be a two-horse race between Russia’s championship record holder Alexey Kuznetsov and Greece’s Manolis Stefanoudakis.

Karolina Kucharczyk will aim to win gold for Poland’s when she competes in the women’s long jump T20. The world and European champion set a new world record at Lyon 2013 and with records aplenty falling in the Doha 2015 pit she may go beyond her mark of 6.09m.

The IPC Athletics World Championships has attracted around 1,300 athletes from nearly 100 countries and will continue until 31 October.

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