Kobe 2024: Top Moments

Kobe 2024 produced numerous memorable moments during nine days of competition. 

Here are six top moments from this year’s Para Athletics World Championships.

The best fans

The atmosphere created by the thousands of young fans every day at the Kobe Universiade Memorial Stadium will be remembered for years to come. In the morning sessions, the soundtrack of children cheering for the athletes could be heard from a distance. A total of 28,193 students from around 200 schools (elementary, junior high, high, and special support schools in Hyogo region, mainly Kobe) had the opportunity to watch the World Championships. Italy’s Oney Tapia wanted to give something back to the fans and climbed to the stands to celebrate his discus F11 gold with a group of amazed kids. 

China’s best 

China arrived in Kobe with 16 Tokyo 2020 Paralympic champions to make very clear they meant serious business at the World Championships. And so it was, 33 gold medals, four of them coming from world records. Wen Xiaoyan smashed two records in five days, first in the women’s 100m T37 (12.27) and then in the 200m T37 (25.75). Li Cuiqing improved her own five-year-old world record in the women’s 200m T11 (24.36). Sun Pengxiang set his new mark in the men's javelin F41 in the final day of competition.

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100-metre surprises

Kobe 2024 saw new 100m world champions crowned beating Paralympic and defending world champions. Algeria’s Skander Djamil Athmani set a new championship record (10.44) in the men’s 100m T13 with world record holder and Paris 2023 champion Salum Kashafali of Norway settling for bronze – three days later Athmani returned for another gold in the 400m this time with a new world record (46.44). China’s Di Dongdong took gold in the men’s 100m T11 final in which Paralympic, world champion and world record holder Nasos Ghavelas of Greece finished empty handed. Turkey’s Serkan Yildirim beat USA’s defending world champion Noah Malone in the men’s 100m T12 and also set a new world record in the 400m T12 (47.47). Watch out for those 100m races at Paris 2024.

First-timers

This year’s Para Athletics World Championships saw history being made by a series of nations at the Kobe Universiade Memorial Stadium. Noemi Alphonse took Mauritius’ first-ever gold medal in the Worlds in the women’s 100m T54 while Darlenys de la Cruz Severino put Dominican Republic on the top of the podium for the first time. There were also memorable moments from Hajar Safarzadeh Ghahderijani, who became Iran’s first female athlete to win a world title, and India’s Simran who claimed her country’s first World Championships track gold (in the women’s 200m T12).

Domination extended

Japanese fans saw in action some of the biggest names in Para athletics add a Kobe 2024 gold to their collection. Brazil’s Petrucio Ferreira claimed his fourth World Championships victory in the men’s 100m T47 right on day one as Germany’s Markus Rehm took his seventh world title in the men’s long jump T64. Great Britain’s Aled Davies bagged a 10th World Championships gold (and the sixth in the men’s shot put F63) while his compatriot Hannah Cockroft extended her domination in the T34 class to 16 gold medals with the victories in the women’s 100m and 800m. The four of them will be defending their Paralympic titles in Paris in three months from now.

You can relive all the action from the Kobe 2024 Para Athletics World Championships on YouTube