The 2023 World Para Athletics Championship was held successfully from 8th July to 17th July 2023 and Paris hosted the championship at the Stade Sébastien Charléty Stadium. Para Athletics Championships is a Para-sporting event parallel to the ‘World Athletics Championships’ which is for non-disabled athletes. It was organized by the subcommittee of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC); ‘World Para Athletics’. This year was the 10th edition of the championships and the third to be held in France, featuring athletic contests where athletes with physical and intellectual disabilities competed for glory.
The program featured 171 medal events – 93 in the men’s category, 77 in the women’s category and 1 in the mixed category – with over 1200 participants representing 103 countries. The 2023 World Para Athletics Championship serves as the first qualifier event for all athletics events at the 2024 Summer Paralympics.
Just like in the 2019 championships, China was able to regain their first place title in the medal table with 476 points. Brazil came in 2nd place with 410 points with the United States in 3rd with 346 points. China was able to attain 16 gold medals, 16 silver medals and 13 bronze medals counting 45 medals in total. Brazil actually got more podiums with 47 medals in total counting 14 gold medals, 13 silver medals and 20 bronze medals among their medal tally, falling just behind China with 2 less golds.. United States accomplished 10 gold medals, 14 silver medals and 15 bronze medals, counting 39 medals in total.
Talking about the highlights of the championship, three world records were set on the penultimate day of the competition. The first world record of the day came in women’s T47 long jump final, as Kiara Rodriguez from Ecuador claimed victory with a jump of 6.23 meters breaking the previous record by a massive 23cm and adding to her 100m gold medal at the same event.
The second world record of the day was set when Iranian shot putter Yasin Khosravi attained the gold with a throw of 16.01m in the men’s F57 category dominating the competition by over a metre
The day’s third world record was set when the Colombian shot putter Jose Gregorio Lemos took the men’s F38 shotput title with a throw of 18.26m. He was once again a class above the rest with no other competitor within a metre.
If we look at the champions ‘China’, they were able to set multiple world records during the haul of ten days. First, Pengxiang Sun was able to grab the men’s javelin throw F41 title, with a throw of 47.55m. There was more Chinese success in the women’s 200m T35 final, with Xia Zhou taking the trophy in 28.77s, and her rival from who was also from her mother land Qianqian Guo achieving the second place and her personal best of 29.97s.
Among the other highlighting world record moments of the championship, in the women’s 400m T38 final, Luca Ekler of Hungary became the first woman to complete the run under the one-minute mark, in the discipline. She achieved the first place with a world record time of 59.74 sec, as she earned her third gold medal and second world record during the championship having set the World record in the long jump previously
Colombian athlete Karen Palomeque could attain the world record of 26.42s, as she won a third gold medal in the finals of the 200m T37 in women’s category in the championship. The silver medal of the event was also accomplished by the Paralympic champion Xiaoyan Wen, in an Asian record time of 26.53s.
Overall, during the entire Paris’23 championships held, 35 world records were broken!
Sri Lanka was also able to gain a name at the championship, when 33 years old Para-athlete and current World record holder. Samitha Dulan Kodithuwakku bagged a bronze medal in the finals of the Men’s Javelin throw- F44 event throwing a distance of 64.06m. Paralympic hero Dinesh Priyantha was the other athlete to add to Sri Lanka’s medal tally clinching bronze in the Men’s F46 with a throw of 65.38m being edged out by Ajit Singh of India after a nail biting competition who took home the gold with a throw just 3cm ahead. With 2 bronze medals to their name Sri Lanka placed 59th at the end of the championships.
At the end of the championship, athletes from Brazil, China, Great Britain, India, Spain, Italy, Japan and US were able to collect the first available quota places for the 2024 Paris Summer Paralympic games.
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