Para sport review: November 2017

BWF Para Badminton World Championships 2017

Jungjun Kim and Sam Seop Lee won their respective singles titles before joining forces to also claim the doubles gold and give the home crowd plenty of reasons to celebrate in Ulsan, South Korea.

IWAS Wheelchair Fencing World Championships

Hungary’s Richard Osvath delivered one of the standout performances as he won the men´s foil category A in Rome, Italy. Italian star Beatrice Vio celebrated twice in front of her crowd, first in the women´s foil category B and then in the women´s foil team event. Italy also celebrated victories through Alessio Sarri in the men´s sabre category B and the men´s foil team. The women´s equivalent event was won by the Ukrainian team.

World Para Snowboard World Cup

Landgraaf, the Netherlands, staged the first World Cup, which included many memorable moments. A thrilling tie-breaker was needed to decide the winner of the men’s banked slalom SB-LL2 as USA’s Mike Shea and Finland’s Matti Suur-Hamari both clocked 40.96. Also, Mike Schultz caused an upset in the men´s banked slalom SB-LL1 by defeating reigning World champion Chris Vos.

World Para Snowboard Europa Cup

The men’s banked slalom SB-LL2 was the only event that did not follow the script, with Japanese Narita Gurimu clocking the fastest time ahead of USA’s Mike Shea and Australia’s Ben Tudhope in Langraaf.

World Para Alpine Skiing Europa Cup

Landgraaf also hosted the season-opener for alpine skiing, with local skier Jeroen Kampschreur showing off his form ahead of the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games.

World Shooting Para Sport World Cup

South Korea´s Jinho Park captured double gold in the R3 (mixed 10m air rifle prone SH1) and R1 (men’s 10m air rifle standing SH1), setting two world records along the way in Bangkok, Thailand. United Arab Emirates’ Abdulla Sultan Alaryani was the other star of the World Cup, winning both the R7 (men’s 50m rifle 3 positions SH1) and R6 (mixed 50m rifle prone SH1).

UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters

Wimbledon and US Open champions Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid won the men´s title for the first time, Marjolein Buis and Diede de Groot were the latest all-Dutch partnership to add their names to the women’s doubles roll-of-honour and USA’s Nick Taylor and David Wagner wrapped up their 10th quad title.

Bath Indoor tournament

It was a great month for Hewett, who also won in Bath alongside the Netherlands’ Diede de Groot as they claimed the men’s and women’s singles titles at the last ITF 1 Series event of 2017 to gain a confidence-boost ahead of the Singles Masters.

IBSA Blind Football Central American Championships

Costa Rica claimed the first edition of the regional event in Guatemala City and qualified for the 2018 World Championships in Madrid, Spain. The hosts and Honduras completed the podium.

European Sitting Volleyball Championships

Russian* men´s and women´s teams cruised to gold in Porec, Croatia.

New York Marathon

Marcel Hug and Manuela Schar scored a Swiss double on 5 November.

*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.

On 6 September 2017, the IPC put in place a limited interim measure for athletes to compete as neutrals in qualification events across four World Para sports for the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games. These sports are alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country and snowboard.

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