Grosseto 2016 - Day 4 preview

Poland’s Arleta Meloch set a new world record when she won the 800m T20 on Sunday – the 36-year-old goes in the semi-finals of the 400m T20 on Tuesday. So does her teammate, the reigning world champion Barbara Niewiedzial who got the better of Meloch over 1,500m on Saturday.

There is a highly competitive German line-up in the men’s 200m T44 semi-finals - Felix Streng, Johannes Floors and David Behre all start, with the final later in the day.

Paralympic champions Mateusz Michalski of Poland and Aleksei Labzin of Russia go head-to-head in the men’s 200m T13 and an exciting race is on the cards as only 0.03 seconds separates their season’s best times so far this year.

Chermen Kobesov won the 200m T38 ahead of fellow Russian Andrei Vdovin on Sunday – the pair race once again over 400m.

Belgium’s Peter Genyn and Finland’s Toni Piispanen also renew their rivalry once again – this time in the 400m T51. Genyn is the current world champion and beat the Finn over 100m earlier in the Championships.

French world champion Marie-Amelie Le Fur set a new 400m T44 world record at Doha 2015 will be hard to beat over one lap here – Germany’s Irmgard Bensusan and Italy’s Guiseppina Versace will be trying their hardest to do just that.

Other French stars out on the Carlo Zecchini Stadium track include visually impaired sprinters Nantenin Keita and Timothee Adolphe. Keita has already won the 200m T13 in Grosseto and will be hoping to add the 400m T13 title to her collection, while Adolphe lines up in the semi-finals of the men’s 400m T12.

Russia’s Natalia Kocherova is aiming for an impressive six European titles this week – the 26-year-old has already won three, and goes in the final of the 800m T54 on Tuesday.

Kocherova’s teammate Evgenii Shvetcov is the favourite for gold in the men’s 100m T36 – the Paralympic champion looked in superb form when he won the 400m T36 on Monday.

Great Britain’s Georgina Hermitage also returns to the track on Tuesday, 24 hours after she smashed the 400m T37 world record. The 27-year-old races in the 200m T37.

Defending champion Henry Manni is chasing four gold medals in Grosseto – if he wins the 200m T34 he will have achieved three with the 800m to go.

Out in the field the men’s shot put F36 features the current world champion Sebastien Dietz of Germany as well as Russia’s Vladimir Sviridov, who beat Dietz to gold at Swansea 2014. Watch out too for Poland’s Pawel Poitrowski, bronze medallist two years ago.

All three medallists from 2014 also throw in the men’s club throw F51 – Czech Jan Vanek, Serbian Milos Mitic and Croatian Niroslav Matic won gold, silver and bronze respectively; then there’s Zeljiko Dimitrijevic, who won gold at Doha 2015.

The men’s club throw F32 features the world gold and bronze medallists from Doha 2015 – Russia’s Vladislav Frolov and Poland’s Maciej Sochal.

Denmark’s T42 long jumper Daniel Jorgensen has been in fantastic form so far this year, smashing the world record in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, last month with a leap of 6.67m – he could go far again today.

Live streaming, live results and full schedules are available at www.grosseto2016.com

For broadcast footage from Grosseto2016 please email IPC Broadcasting Manager sascha.beck@paralympic.org

Rights free images from the event can be downloaded here: www.flickr.com/paralympic