New Delhi 2025: Palomeque Moreno defends 200m T38 title in record-breaking run

Colombia’s Karen Tatiana Palomeque Moreno retained her women’s 200m T38 world title with a world record at the IndianOil New Delhi 2025 World Para Athletics Championships on Thursday.

The 31-year-old from Medellin, who won two gold medals and a bronze at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, had been dethroned by her teammate Angie Nicoll Mejia Morales in Monday's narrow 100m T38 final, but refused to let another title slip.

With a good start, Palomeque Moreno and her 16-year-old compatriot broke clear of the field, but this time Palomeque Moreno held her off to claim her third consecutive 200m crown in 24.98, knocking nine hundredths off her own world record set in May.

“I want to thank my mother, sister, brother, auntie and uncle. It is much thanks to their support that I am here. I should obviously also thank my husband, who is a motivation for me to be here, making my dreams come true,” Palomeque Moreno said.

New Delhi 2025: Here are the medallist from day six

“I want to thank my coaches for their strength and for helping me through such a beautiful process that we have had, and that has resulted in such a great result.”

It was the sixth world title for Palomeque Moreno, who now has a New Delhi medal in every colour, having claimed bronze in the long jump T38 on Wednesday. Luca Ekler of Hungary, who topped the long jump podium ahead of the two Colombians, took bronze in 25.96.

Debrunner claims fourth title

The sixth evening of action at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium was delayed because of heavy rainfall, with some events postponed to the remaining days. The weather was however not anything that could stop Switzerland’s Catherine Debrunner, who won the women’s 100m T53 final to claim her fourth gold medal in New Delhi.

“It has been a crazy day today, with plenty of thunderstorm and rain, so everything was postponed, and we’ve been really insecure about what was going to happen. Suddenly they said that we could go into the call room, and it was kind of chaotic,” Debrunner said.

When the track was race-ready again, Debrunner set off with a lightning start and soon had a chair’s length back to Turkiye’s Hamide Dogangun in second place. She took the title in a new championship record of 15.50 – almost half a second faster than Dogangun’s 15.96 – as Zhou Hongzhuan of China claimed bronze.

“I am really happy that I could deal with the circumstances. To take my first World Championships title in the 100m is a very special one to me,” Debrunner said.

In her Paris 2024 medal haul, Debrunner had won gold medals in the 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m and the marathon, and a silver in the 100m. In New Delhi, she had previously triumphed in the 800m, 1500m and 5000m and will aim for a clean sweep of gold medals in Friday's 400m final.

“I want to say thanks to everyone who supports me in Switzerland; my family, my friends, my whole support team in sports,” she said.

“I could never have done it without you guys and I’m so proud of what we have achieved in the past years.”

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Afrooz improves own record

Iran’s Saeid Afrooz improved his own world record in the men’s javelin F34 final. The world and Paralympic champion made no mistake in the first event of the day. With a winning throw of 41.52 in his fifth attempt, he extended his mark from Paris 2024 by 36cm. Diego Fernando Meneses Medina of Colombia pulled off his best throw in his sixth and last attempt, claiming the silver medal with an American Record of 39.19.

Paralympic and world champion Safia Djelal of Algeria was big favourite to win the women’s shot put F57, where she had set the world record at last year’s World Championships in Kobe, Japan. On Thursday, she defended her title with a new world record of 11.67 in her fifth of six attempts, adding 5cm to her previous mark.

Her teammate Nassima Saifi, with a 10.45 throw, made it an Algerian one-two as Tian Yuxin claimed bronze.

Also defending her world title from Kobe 2024, Noemi Alphonse won the women’s 100m T54 final.

The 29-year-old, who made history for Mauritius as she became the island nation’s first Para athletics world champion last year, got off to an explosive start and kept increasing the pace throughout the sprint, giving off a victory scream as she crossed the line in 16.07. She beat runner-up Zubeyde Supurgeci of Turkiye by 0.12 of a second as Zhou Zhaoqian of China claimed bronze. Belgium’s Paralympic champion Lea Bayekula had to settle for a fifth place.

Brazil extends the lead at the top of the table 🇧🇷#ParaAthletics #NewDelhi2025 pic.twitter.com/LnnPlYaUGW

— Para Athletics (@ParaAthletics) October 2, 2025

Brazil increase lead

Brazil increased their lead in the overall medal table, having claimed four titles including back-to-back 400m gold medals on Thursday morning. 

Bartolomeu Chaves defended his world title in the 400m T37 with a new championship record. The 24-year-old Paralympic silver medallist made a strong finish to cross the line in 50.13, beating Neutral Paralympic Athlete Anton Feoktistov in second place by more than half a second. Colombia’s Yeferson Suarez Cardona had the lead for most of the race but had to settle for bronze in 51.19. 

“I entered the track knowing I was going to fight for gold,” said Chaves, nicknamed "Passarinho” – ”Little bird” – in Brazil

“I was confident. I started the race and, after passing the 200-metre mark and seeing that I was in the lead, I thought, ‘now I'm not going to let anyone pass me’. Then the gold came.”

It was the fourth World Championship podium of the career for the T37 sprinter who won silver in the 200m T37 on Tuesday.

“I'm very happy. It was the first time I ran in lane nine, and I didn't think it was bad. I was very confident,” Chaves said.

“I can't wait to go back to Brazil and give my mother a hug.”

Only 3 days left to win medals ⌚️#ParaAthletics #NewDelhi2025 pic.twitter.com/VVRqZpkuZk

— Para Athletics (@ParaAthletics) October 2, 2025

Augusto surprises

Right after the Brazilian success came another one as Maria Clara Augusto won the women's 400m T47. The Paralympic bronze medallist surprised everyone – including Brazil's Paris 2024 champion Fernanda Yara in fifth place – as she claimed the title in a new personal best time of 56.17. 

“The whole time, I was mentally telling myself, ‘you can do it, you trained, just keep doing the right thing’, and I managed to do that on the track,” Augusto said.

She took over the lead at the 300m mark and beat Neutral Para Athlete Anastasiia Soloveva in second place by almost one and a half second, Jule Ross of Germany claiming bronze. Augusto’s time was 0.57 of a second outside of the world record, set by South Africa’s Anrune Weyers in 2019.

“It was a lot of work. Since last year, I've been working to beat the (Championship) Record, with the help of my coach, to keep improving. And I'm going to set him a challenge, which is to beat the World Record for this event,” Augusto said.

World record for Oliveira

Brazil’s Wanna Helena Brito Oliveira won the women’s shot put F32 title with a new world record of 8.49, her compatriot Antonia Keyla da Silva Barros repeating the feat in the Women’s 1500m T20 final, where she erased a world record that had stood since 2012.

The South Americans have won 12 golds and 36 medals overall. In second place of the medal table are China, on eight gold medals. Poland in third place have won seven.

Para athletes from China, Italy, Libya, Mexico, Morocco, Poland, Serbia, Thailand and Uzbekistan also won gold medals on day six of the World Championships.