Dubai Grand Prix: Five of the Best

The 2018 World Para Athletics Grand Prix series kicks off in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Tuesday (13 March).

The event is the first of nine Grand Prix set to take place around the world this year and will provide a valuable early indication of form from Para athletes from around the globe.

Here are five top moments from past editions of the Dubai Grand Prix to whet your appetite:

1. In 2014, Tunisia’s star wheelchair racer Walid Ktila set no fewer than three world records at the Dubai Police Club track – smashing previous bests in the 200m (26.69), 400m (50.95) and 800m T34 (1:42.33). The multiple Paralympic and world champion is back again this year.

2. Teenager Maria Lyle certainly knew how to make a big first impression, setting a new 200m T35 world record (31.01) there on her international debut in 2014 - a mark the Scot lower further on her return to the UAE 12 months later when she clocked 30.53.

3. Great Britain’s Aled Davies laid on two record-breaking performances in Dubai in 2015, registering what was then a world record 48.87m in the discus F42 and 15.93m in the shot put.

4. In fact, world records at the Dubai Grand Prix reached double figures in 2015 – Dutch sprinter Marlou van Rhijn took 0.11 seconds off her previous best in the 100m T43 clocking 12.85. Van Rhijn went on to lower that mark twice more that year, culminating in double world gold at Doha 2015.

5. In 2016, Algeria’s Paralympic and world shot put champion Asmahane Boudjadar added 48cm on to her javelin F33 world record mark with a throw of 11.99m. She extended that distance on her return to Dubai 12 months later, throwing a massive 12.82m – one of four world records set by Algerian Para athletes in Dubai in 2017.