Para sport review: April 2018

Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games

Around 300 Para athletes competed in 38 medal events across seven Para sports: athletics, lawn bowls, powerlifting, table tennis, track cycling, triathlon and swimming.

Welsh field athlete Hollie Arnold delivered a standout performance by breaking the world record in the women´s javelin F46.

Nigeria showed their powerlifting dominance by sweeping all four events, Rio 2016 table tennis Olympian and Paralympian Melissa Tapper secured gold in front of her home crowd and English cycling star Sophie Thornhill set two world records on her way to double gold.

Hosts Australia ended top of the swimming medals table and England celebrated double triathlon success.

World Para Swimming World Series

US swimmers dominated the second leg of the World Series on home soil in Indianapolis. Mexican Paralympic bronze medallist Luis Andrade and Japan´s Takuro Yamada also stood out.

The third World Series took place in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with reigning champion Daniel Dias stealing the show in front of his home crowd by winning three golds. Argentina´s Worlds gold medallist Daniela Gimenez added two golds, one silver and one bronze to her trophy cabinet.

Sao Paulo Athletics Grand Prix

Brazilian sprinter Veronica Hipolito claimed a heroic gold in the women's 100m T38 after announcing that she is to undergo surgery to remove a tumour in her forehead. Andre Rocha broke a 20-year-old world record* in the men´s discus F53. Paralympic champion Petrucio Ferreira was another of the stars who shone in Sao Paulo.

Super 6

The Iranian men´s sitting volleyball team emerged triumphant on home soil in the city of Tabriz after beating Russia** 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 28-26) in the final, in front of 1,200 spectators.

London Marathon

Home favourite David Weir clinched his eighth London Marathon title in the men’s T53/54 race and Australian Madison de Rozario claimed the women´s title adding to her Commonwealth Games crown.

Boston Marathon

Paralympic and world champions Marcel Hug and Tatyana McFadden won the men´s and women´s races. The ´Swiss Bullet´ notched up a fourth consecutive win in the US city, while McFadden took her fifth Boston Marathon title.

Lady and Men Intercup

Rio 2016 men´s goalball champions Brazil took gold following a 12-2 victory over Germany, while Russia** defeated Turkey 7-6 in the women’s final.

Szczecin World Shooting Para Sport Grand Prix

Ukrainian shooters captured seven of eight golds at the final competition in Poland before the 2018 World Championships in Cheongju, South Korea, from 4-11 May.

Antalya Grand Prix

South Korean judokas left with an impressive 10 podium finishes in the season-opening event in Antalya, Turkey, between 22 and 23 April.

IWRF World Championships Qualification Tournament

In Nottwil, Switzerland, Ireland, New Zealand, Poland and Colombia secured the final four spots for the wheelchair rugby World Championships to be held in Sydney, Australia, from 4-10 August.

World Team Cup European Qualification

Spain and Great Britain won the men´s and women´s events, respectively, in Vilamoura, Portugal, and qualified for the finals of the International Tennis Federation´s (ITF) flagship wheelchair tennis competition in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, between 28 May and 3 June.

Pole International du Cheval

Great Britain’s equestrian multiple-world, Paralympic and European champion Sophie Christiansen won all three of her grade I classes in her first major international competition since Rio 2016.

World Equestrian Games (WEG) Para equestrian Test Event

The US team, made up of Rebecca Hart, Katie Jackson, Kate Shoemaker and Roxanne Trunnell, scored a combined 429.096 per cent to take the win over Canada (400.246 per cent).

*subject to ratification by World Para Athletics

**Editor's note: The International Paralympic Committee suspended the Russian Paralympic Committee on 7 August 2016 for its inability to fulfil its IPC membership responsibilities and obligations, in particular its obligation to comply with the IPC Anti-Doping Code and the World Anti-Doping Code (to which it is also a signatory). As a result of the suspension, Russian athletes cannot enter IPC sanctioned events or competitions, including the Paralympic Games.

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