Rio 2016: Day five preview

Among a string of highlights at the Olympic Stadium on Monday (12 September) is Tunisia’s Walid Ktila, the most successful athlete at last year’s World Championships, who is aiming to defend the 100m T34 title he won at London 2012.

Marie-Amelie le Fur also competes for her second gold medal of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, having already set a new world record to win the long jump T44. She is the favourite in the women’s 400m T44.

And Cuba’s Omara Durand, the fastest female Paralympian on the planet, is aiming for another gold when she lines up in the final of the women’s 200m T12.

It should be another magnificent day at the Olympic Stadium – and across the Games as a whole.

There’s no shortage of action in the pool, where Brazilian hero Daniel Dias competes for a fifth medal from Rio 2016 and Ibrahim Al-Hussein, a swimmer from the Independent Paralympic Athlete team, makes his debut.

New Zealand’s Sophie Pascoe has her sights set on the women’s 100m butterfly S10 title, while Great Britain’s Eleanor Simmonds is aiming for glory in the Women’s 200m individual medley SM6.

Elsewhere, the team test of the Rio 2016 Para-equestrian competition gathers steam as reigning champions Great Britain enter the contest for the first time.

The team, which is undefeated at Paralympic, World and European level, did not have riders in Sunday’s (11 September) grades III and Ib tests, concentrating their firepower instead on grades Ia, II and IV.

London 2012 triple gold medallist Sophie Christiansen and Beijing 2008 gold medallist Anne Dunham will lead the team’s charge in the afternoon’s grade Ia test.

Wheelchair fencing gets underway at the Carioca Arena 3, with the male sabre fencers the first off the mark.

In the category A sabre competition Chinese fencers Yijun Chen and Jianquan Tian are expected to battle it out for gold.

But Ukraine’s Andrii Demchuk is determined to prevent an all-Chinese final.

Over on Centre Court, things will really hot up in the wheelchair tennis.

The semi-finals of the quad singles involve two fascinating clashes, first between Dylan Alcott and Lucas Sithole, before America’s David Wagner and Great Britain’s Andy Lapthorne compete in Monday’s final game on Centre Court.

Watch out, too, for the equally engrossing semi-finals in the women’s doubles, where the Netherlands are aiming to retain their gold medal.

In powerlifting, athletes will compete across the women’s up to 73kg category, the women’s up to 79kg class, and the men’s up to 80kg event.

France’s Souhad Ghazouani, the current world record holder, looks a strong favourite to win gold in the women’s up to 73kg category. Nigeria’s Bose Omolayo is a major contender in the women’s up to 79kg event, while Xiao Fei Gu and Metwaly Mathana look like the front runners in the men’s up to 80kg class.

Twenty-four athletes will take part in the R7 (men’s 50m rifle 3 positions SH1) Para-shooting event.

Swedish star and 10-time Paralympian Jonas Jacobsson is now 57 years old, but he still one of the leading contenders, while Israel’s Doron Shaziri is aiming for third time lucky after collecting silver medals at Beijing 2008 and London 2012.