New Delhi 2025: refugee athlete Atangana wins historic world title

Guillaume Junior Atangana made history at the IndianOil New Delhi 2025 World Para Athletics Championships on Tuesday as he won the men’s 400m T11 gold medal, claiming the first ever world title for a refugee Para athlete.

Last year, the 26-year-old had carried the flag for the Refugee Paralympic Team at Paris 2024, winning a milestone – the maiden Para athletics medal at the Games for the Refugee Team that he hoped would allow refugees all over the world to dream.

One year later, the Cameroon-born runner and guide Donard Ndim Nyamjua made it to the top of the podium. 

“I’m feeling very happy because when I see where we come from, my guide and I, it’s not been easy. We live in England and don’t have any support, so I am so grateful for this,” Atangana said.

“I want to dedicate the medal to everyone that I have lost in the past; my dad, my mum, my grandma – everyone.”

The duo looked strong in the first 200m of the race and sealed the gold medal with a push in the last 50m, clocking in at a season-best 51.95. France’s Gauthier Makunda took the silver 0.86 of a second behind, beating bronze medallist Mohammed Ayade of Iraq by four hundredths of a second. 

Paralympic champion Enderson German Santos Gonzalez of Venezuela had to settle for fourth and last place.

“I’m very happy,” Nyamjua said.

“I want to dedicate this medal to all the refugees around the world and to all the people who live with disabilities.”

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Follow the full competition and every session of the IndianOil New Delhi 2025 World Para Athletics Championships on the @Paralympics YouTube channel 📺

Subject to geo-blocking restrictions in some countries.#ParaAthletics #NewDelhi2025 pic.twitter.com/iI5IIqpZCW

— Para Athletics (@ParaAthletics) September 20, 2025

One-two finish

Germany produced a one-two finish in a narrow men’s 100m T64 final, where Felix Streng won his first individual world title, just ahead of his teammate Johannes Floors in second place.

In a field full of continental, world and Paralympic titles in the blade runner events, the Tokyo 2020 champion Streng got the strongest start but was soon caught up by the main man to beat; Pan American, world and Paralympic champion Sherman Isidro Guity Guity from Costa Rica. 

Closer to the finish line, however, Guity Guity ran out of steam and had to settle for the third place as T62 world record-holder Floors caught up to give his teammate a run for his money. Streng took the title in 10.73, beating Floors by two hundredths of a second, as Guity Guity claimed the bronze in 10.93.

“I’m just happy. It has been a super long season and yesterday, we saw in the heats that it was going to be a super hard race and that I would have to prove a point today,” Streng, 30, said.

“I was like, ’I need to get a good start, I need to transition and stay on top of my step going through the race’. That was my main goal today and I executed it well.”

Streng, whose only previous world title had come in a 4x100m T42-47 Relay in Doha, Qatar, in 2015, said the tough competition had helped push him to the top of the podium one decade after his first triumph.

“It was nice to have such a strong line-up. You never know when the double amputees come through, so you need to get the job done early in the race,” he said.

“I’m very happy, it’s my first individual world title and it’s been an amazing season. I worked really hard for this; it’s been an amazing team effort behind me and I’m super proud to be at the top of the podium today."

Olympic champion in the stands 

India’s throwers had a field day at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion in the men’s javelin, Neeraj Chopra, in the stands.

He witnessed another great Indian triumph in the sport as Sumit Antil won the men’s javelin throw F64 gold medal with a new championship record. 

The 27-year-old F64 world record holder crushed the competition with four throws beyond 65m that all would have been enough for him to win. His best attempt, 71.37, was nearly 23 metres further than the personal best produced by Colombia’s Tomas Felipe Soto Mina, who took the silver. Rufat Khabibullin of Kazakhstan claimed the bronze with 47.14.

Having won the event in three consecutive World Championships – including in Paris 2023 and Kobe 2024 – Antil’s three world titles are the most won by an Indian Para athlete. The winner, however, still saw plenty of room for improvement.

“I was thinking I’d throw much more. I was thinking I would get a new world record. But at least I got the CR,” Antil said.

“I was fine at the start of my warm-up throws, but then suddenly, when I threw with some power, I got a lot of pain in my neck. It was hurting throughout the competition.”

The host nation also grabbed the two top spots in the narrow men’s javelin throw F44 final, where Sandip Sanjay Sargar clinched the gold with a personal best of 62.82, beating his teammate by 15cm. 

Brazil’s Robert Edenilson broke the F42 world record to claim the third place with 62.36, denying F43 world record-holder Pushpendra Singh, who threw 61.94, a medal that would make it a clean sweep for India.

India breaks into the top 5️⃣ after today’s medals!#ParaAthletics #NewDelhi2025 pic.twitter.com/gyw8P4Et33

— Para Athletics (@ParaAthletics) September 30, 2025

Second gold for Comerford 

On Sunday, Ireland’s Orla Comerford won her first World Championships gold medal as she beat Brazil’s Rayane Soares da Silva to the Women’s 100m T13 title. On Tuesday, Comerford did it again in the 200m T13, after another battle with the Brazilian who holds the world records in both events.

Comerford made a strong side but came into the corner with Soares da Silva right behind her. Then the Irish sprinter switched gears and pushed away from her opponent, crossing the line at 24.71 to win by a margin of more than half a second.

Just as in the 100m T13, Kym Crosby of the United States won bronze.

“The goal for me here was to try and win that 100m and the 200 was the cherry on top,” Comerford said.

“After Monday night (in the heats) I was just like, ’it’s there, I feel good, I feel strong’. The Brazilian broke the World Record in both 100m and 200m in the summer so I knew that coming out and beating her in the 100m would put down a mark. I wanted to put my stamp on that (100m) and show that I’m here to contend.”

Records shattered

Also with a second gold medal in New Delhi, Poland’s frame runner Magdalena Andruszkiewicz, who won the women’s 400m T72 on Sunday, claimed the 100m T72 title on Tuesday with a new world record.

Finishing in 16.82, the 36-year-old beat Spain’s Judith Tortosa Vila in second place by more than two and a half seconds, knocking a quarter of a second off the previous world record, set by Australia’s Maria Strong in 2023.

Frame running, where athletes use a three-wheeled running frame, will make their Paralympic Games debut at Los Angeles 2028 with the 100m T72 events, and Italy’s Carlo Fabio Marcello Calcagni has made a name for himself as the man to beat to the maiden Paralympic title, claiming his second gold medal in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The 56-year-old, who set a world record in the men’s 100m T72 heats, made no mistake in the final as he claimed the gold medal in 14.80, 0.96 of a second ahead of Brazil’s runner-up Joao Matos Marques. Finlay Jonathan Menzies won bronze.

Day 3, that’s a wrap ✅#ParaAthletics #NewDelhi2025 pic.twitter.com/cxJ7uTmYUT

— Para Athletics (@ParaAthletics) September 30, 2025

Low claims her fourth 

Australia’s three-time Paralympic champion Vanessa Low, who made her international debut in India 16 years ago, claimed her fourth women’s long jump T63 gold medal with a T61 championship record of 5.49. 

Low finished just ahead of Switzerland’s runner-up Elena Kratter, who produced a T63 Championship Record of 5.45. Noelle Lambert-Beirne of the United States claimed the bronze.

“It was much closer than what I wanted it to be. At the same time, it’s really great that the girls stepped up and that, on a bad day, it’s not that easy to win,” Low said.

“You just got to hit the board. That was very close, but you can’t be disappointed with a win. I’m really happy that I managed two good jumps to bring home the win.”

Three for Brazil

In the fourth day of World Championships action, Brazil claimed three gold medals and took the lead in the overall medal table.

Claudiney Batista won the men’s discus throw F56 and Ricardo Gomes de Mendonca claimed gold in the men’s 200m T37 final as his teammate Bartolomeu da Silva made it a one-two before Yeltsin Jacques and Julio Cesar Agripino finished off the day with another one-two in the men’s 1500m T11 final, won by Paralympic champion Jacques.

With five days left of the championships, the South Americans have won a total of 27 medals including seven golds. Poland are in second place, on six gold medals, before China in third place, on five.

Saudi Arabia’s Naif Almasrahi set a world record of 10.94 en route winning the men’s 100m T44 final and Konstantinos Tourkochoritis of Greece set a new F62 world record in the men’s javelin throw F64 Final, where he finished in seventh place.

Para athletes from Argentina, China, Iran, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Tunisia and the United States as well as Neutral Para Athlete David Dzhatiev, who was victorious in the men’s 200m T35 final, also won gold medals on Tuesday.