Marcel Hug leads star-packed field as Dubai opens 2022 GP season

Nearly 450 athletes from 43 countries to take part in the first World Para Athletics event of the year in UAE 20 Mar 2022
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A man with a helmet pushes his wheelchair with pneumatic tyres in the Para athletics track event
Dubai is a familiar track to Switzerland's Marcel Hug who picked three medals when the venue hosted the 2019 World Championships
ⒸBryn Lennon/Getty Images
By World Para Athletics

Dubai, United Arab Emirates will continue the tradition of kicking off the World Para Athletics Grand Prix when 446 athletes and 30 guides from 43 nations take part in the Dubai 2022 GP. 

The competition will take place from 21 to 24 March (Monday to Thursday) at the Dubai Club for People with Determination, the same venue which hosted the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships.

It will be the fifth consecutive year that the event opens the Grand Prix calendar and the first World Para Athletics competition since the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games in September last year. 

Paralympic Sports Award winner in the Best Male Athlete category in 2021, Switzerland’s Marcel Hug is one of the stars of the event following his four gold medals at Tokyo 2020.

He could not have hope for a better star of the season as he set a new world record* in the men’s 5000m T54 during an international meet in Sharjah, UAE on Tuesday (16 March).

“Just grateful how 2022 season started. Now looking forward to the track races in Dubai,” Hug posted on social media following his victory in Sharjah.

The Swiss Silver Bullet will compete in two events in the GP, the men’s 1500m and 5000m T54. 

FROM TOKYO TO DUBAI

Triple gold medallist at Tokyo 2020, USA’s Nick Mayhugh will run the men’s 100m and 200m T37 at this week’s Grand Prix.

Another Paralympic champion to return in Dubai is Colombia’s Jose Gregorio Lemos, the gold medallist in the men’s javelin throw F38 in Japan. 

“I am feeling great, I have been working hard this year and I am ready to take on all my events. But more than that, I like to enjoy the competition,” said Lemos.

The Colombian will be in action in two events in the opening Grand Prix of the season, the men’s 100m and long jump T38, and men's javelin F38. 

Great Britain travelled to UAE with four Tokyo 2020 champions: Andrew Small (men’s 100m T33), Daniel Pembroke (men’s javelin F13), Hannah Cockroft (women’s 100m and 800m T34) and Thomas Young (men’s 100m T38).

The host nation will be represented by 42 athletes, the biggest delegation in Dubai followed by Thailand (37), India (33) and Kazakhstan (25).

The competition will be streamed live on You Tube. Live results can be found here.

Tunis and Marrakech will host the next two stops in the 2022 Grand Prix season. 

First in the Tunisian capital from 27 to 29 June followed by the competition in the Moroccan city from 15 to 17 September. 

*World record subject to ratification by World Para Athletics.