Weir takes third gold at IPC Athletics World Champs

Two weeks of intensive training in Auckland in early January was the key to Great Britain’s David Weir picking up three gold medals at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch.

Victory in today’s T54 5000m went with his 1500m and 800m medals won earlier in the week. Having competed in the New York marathon late last year, Weir was happy with his base fitness, but used the two weeks in Auckland to sharpen his speed.

In what was a very tactical race today, Weir was shadowed throughout by Swiss rival Marcel Hug, but in the end the Englishman was just too strong. France’s Julien Casoli took the bronze. The time for the race was 10:48.43.

Another to pick up their third gold medal was Brazil’s Yunidis Castillo in the women’s T46 400m. Having already won the 100m and 200m, she set a new championship record of 24.86secs in securing her hat trick. Nikol Rodomakina (Russia) took silver and Great Britain’s Sally Brown was third.

Tunisia’s Abderrahim Zhiou produced a multi gold medal winning effort in the men’s 5000m T12 event. Having earlier won the 1500m, he outsprinted Kenya’s Henry Kirwa to win in 14:40.06, a new championship record. Algeria’s Nacereddine Kerfas was third. Zhiou is now looking to add a third gold medal in the 800m.

Ilse Hayes, of South Africa, picked up her second gold medal with a leap of 5.80m in the F13 long jump. Second was Australian Jessica Gallagher with Bulgaria’s Hanna Kaniuk taking the bronze.

Alexey Labzin (Russia) grabbed his second gold medal in the men’s 200m T13. The silver went to Hussein Kadhim (Iraq) from Iran’s Ahmadreza Kazemi. The winning time was 22.49secs.

Mohamaed Hammadi (UAE) also added to his earlier gold and silver medals with a win in the T34 400m in 56.20secs, well clear of Stefan Rusch and Henk Schuiling, of the Netherlands.

Brazil’s Odair Santos (Brazil) backed up his 1500m gold medal with a comprehensive win in the T11 5000m in a time of 15:16.87, a new championship record. Second was Kenyan Francis Thuo Karanja in 16:00.00 with Cristian Valenzuela (Chile) taking the bronze in 16:01.88.

In total there were seven world records today. The first was in the men’s F33/34 javelin where Thierry Cibone threw 35.91m, to beat the old record by 0.01m. Former record holder Faouzi Rzig (Tunisia) was second ahead of countryman Mohamed Ali Krid.

Egypt’s Ia Abdelwareth grabbed the second world record in the men’s F37/38 shot put. His throw of 15.58m was 0.36m better than the old mark that had been held by second placegetter Oleksandr Doroshenko of Ukraine. Poland’s Tomasz Blatkiewicz was third.

Aigars Apinis (Latvia) bettered his own world record in the men’s F51/52/53 discus with a throw of 20.88m (998pts), 0.41m better than his pervious best. In finishing second Joze Flere of Slovenia set a new championship record of 10.23m for the F51 class. Jordan’s Yassen Mohammad was third.

The Chinese 4X400m T53/54 team of Ting Zhang, Lisha Huang, Wenjun Liu and Hongzhuan Zhou set a new world time of 3:36.11, beating the previous best by 10 seconds. The United States was second.

Two world records fell in the women’s F35/36 shot put. Mariia Pomazan (Ukraine) shattered the F35 record with a throw of 10.61m (1035pts), over a metre better than the old mark. Qing Wu (China), who took silver, also broke the world record for F36 with her throw of 9.66m (1005pts). Ukraine’s Alla Malchyk was third (9.28m and 975pts).

Hania Aidi, of Tunisia, retained her own F54 world record with a throw of 17.27m (1001pts) in the F54/55/56 javelin. Martina Willing (Germany) was second and South Africa’s Ntombizanele was third.

Russia came out on top in the men’s T11-13 4 X 100m relay in 42.99secs. The team of Fredor Trikolich, Alexey Labzin, Artem Loginov and Andrey Koptev were two seconds to the better of Portugal (44.44sec) with Spain third (45.45sec).

Ukraine set a new championship record in the T35-38 4 X 100m relay, just pipping China (46.03) and Australia (46.07). The Ukrainian team was Andriy Onufriyenko, Sergi Kravchenko, Roman Panlyk and Mykyta Senyk.

Lithuania’s Ramune Adomaitiene set a new championship mark in the women’s F38 long jump with a leap of 4.64m to hold out Poland’s Marta Langner and Tunisia’s Sonia Mansour.

Ukraine’s Roman Pavlyk was too quick out of the blocks in the men’s T36 200m, winning in 24.47secs from world record holder Wa Wai So (Hong Kong) and Great Britain’s Benjamin Rushgrove.

It was a Brazil quinella in the men’s T11 400m with Lucas Prado setting a new championship record of 51.19secs from Daniel Silva with Namibia’s Ananias Shikongo third.

Japan was also in quinella form in the men’s 400m T52 event with Tomoya Ito winning in championship record time of 1:0017secs from Hirokazu Ueyonabaru with Austria’s Thomas Geierspichler grabbing the bronze.

Maciej Lepiato (Poland), with a leap of 2.02m, took gold in the men’s F46 high jump from Hongjie Chen (China) the silver medallist and world record holder Jeff Skiba of the United States taking the bronze.

World champion Bill Marinkovic, of Austria, took out the gold medal in the F11 javelin with a throw of 47.47m. Anibal Bello (Venezuela) was second and China’s Duan Li took the bronze.

Assia El Hannouni (France), after a long lay off following Beijing, was too accomplished in the T12 400m event. Her time of 56.04secs was a new championship record. Ukraine’s Oxana Boturchuk took silver and Jiping Xu was third.

South Africa’s Fannie Lombaard went one better than his silver medal yesterday with victory in the men’s F42 discus with a throw of 42.03m, ahead of Belgium’s Gino de Keersmaeker (41.70m) and Great Britain’s Aled Davies (41.56m).

In total 43 World records and 109 Championship records have been set over the five days.