IPC Athletics World Championships
19-29 July

Lyon 2013 - Day five morning session review

There was a pile-up in the women's 800m T52 final at the IPC Athletics World Championships, resulting in a disqualifcation for Belgium's Marieke Vervoort. 24 Jul 2013
Imagen
Marieke Vervoort and Michelle Stilwell

Marieke Vervoort of Belgium celebrates as she wins gold ahead of silver medallist Michelle Stilwell of Canada (L) in the Women's 100m T52 Final at the London 2012 Paralympic Games

ⒸGetty Images
By IPC

It was the Belgian who came out worse, tumbling over to the hit the ground as Stilwell – silver medallist in 2011 - managed to keep her wheelchair upright.

There was drama in the first race of day five at the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon, France as fierce rivals Marieke Vervoort of Belgium and Canada’s Michelle Stilwell collided with 200m to go in their 800m T52 final.

It was the Belgian who came out worse, tumbling over to the hit the ground as Stilwell – silver medallist in 2011 - managed to keep her wheelchair upright.

The race had started slowly, with neither Stilwell nor Vervoort showing a great desire to take the race on. Going round on the inside lane with Vervoort on her shoulder, the pair were beginning to accelerate for a sprint finish when the crash occurred.

America’s defending champion Kerry Morgan managed to get passed and take advantage of the pile up to cross the line first, but the result will not stand as Vervoort - who won Paralympic 100m T52 gold ahead of Stilwell in London - was deemed to have cut across the Canadian and was later disqualified. The race will be re-run on Thursday 25 July.

The final of the women’s 100m T44 is set to be a thriller as home favourite and defending champion Marie-Amelie Le Fur went through from her qualifier after winning by a clear margin. The 24-year-old lines up against a field including the Netherland’s Marlou van Rhijn, who won the second semi-final, and Beijing 2008 champion April Holmes.

Van Rhijn set a new 100m T43 world record in Berlin last month to become the world’s fastest female amputee, but the pair will have to watch out for Great Britain’s Sophie Kamlish who ran a terrific race to seal her place in the final.

In the women’s 100m T12 semi-finals, 200m gold medallist Oxana Boturckuk of the Ukraine and Guohua Zhou of China each won their qualifiers, although Paralympic champion Zhou was made to work hard by Great Britain’s Libby Clegg.

Another Chinese Paralympic champion, Lisha Huang, enjoyed a straightforward qualification in the first women’s 100m T53 semi-final, whilst victory in the second semi went to Paralympic bronze medallist Angela Ballard of Australia.

Defending world champion Terezinha Guilhermina of Brazil secured her place in the final of the women’s 400m T11 with a convincing win in her semi-final, whilst Angola’s Maria Silva won her qualifier.

Raymond Martin looks the man to beat in the men’s 200m T52 final tomorrow. The American shot out the blocks to lead coming off the bend in his semi-final, qualifying with a championship record of 31.59. With three golds under his belt already here in Lyon, a fourth looks highly likely.

The men’s 100m T12 semi-finals were won by Russia’s Fedor Trikolich and Poland’s Mateusz Michalski, gold and silver medallists over 200m respectively.

And in the 100m T13, Ireland’s double Paralympic champion Jason Smyth will be aiming to make it a world double having cruised to victory in the semi-finals clocking a championship record 10.72.

Jana Schmidt bettered her fifth place finish from the World Championships two year ago with victory in the women’s shot put F42/44, 9.15m (879 points) the winning throw. The German has already secured long jump silver so far in Lyon.

Italy enjoyed a world record on the field as Assunta Legnante won gold in the shot put F11 with 16.79m, beating the mark she set when she took the Paralympic title in London.

Kim Lopez Gonzalez also improved two years on from Christchurch where he picked up bronze, with a win in the men’s discus F12. The Spaniard managed a best of 46.39, nearly 6m clear of Russia’s Vladimir Andryushchenko, who secured world silver once again.

In the men’s javelin F54/55/56, 2011 bronze medallist Luis Zepeda left it until his last attempt to secure gold for Mexico, throwing 28.17m (984 points) to take the title from Russia’s Alexey Kuznetsov, who had to settle for silver.

And rounding off the morning session was the men’s triple jump T11, won by Paralympic bronze medallist Ruslan Katyshev with a personal best of 12.70m, just 4cm clear of American Elexis Gillette who took silver to go one better than his bronze from New Zealand.

The 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships, featuring over 1,000 athletes from nearly 100 countries, runs through until Sunday 28 July. It is the biggest gathering of international athletes since London 2012 and is being streamed each day live via www.ParalympicSport.TV.

Live results can be found at the Lyon 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships website whilst updates and behind the scenes pictures can be found at twitter.com/IPCAthletics and facebook.com/IPCAthletics. More pictures can be found at flickr.com/ipc-athletics-lyon2013.com.