Doha: Australia’s Angie Ballard and Canada’s Brent Lakatos were agonisingly denied their third Doha 2015 gold medals yesterday at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships, as world records continued to fall.
In arguably the race of the night, Ballard – the 200m and 400m champion - led from the front but in the final 40 metres came under pressure from China’s Hongzhuan Zhou. As the pair jostled for the lead, Ballard’s teammate Madison de Rozario (1:53.86) came out of nowhere to power round the outside and claim the win.
Zhou (1:53.95) sealed the silver, whilst Ballard (1:54.08) was pushed back into bronze.
“I was just trying to stay in a medal position and then I realised I had a little left in the tank and just went for it,” said a visibly stunned de Rozario. “This is not my strongest event so it’s a shock to be first. I can’t even express with words how I feel.”
Lakatos (49.45), who claimed 100m and 200m golds earlier this week, had started the 400m T53 as favourite but could only manage silver following a sensational push from China’s Huzhao Li (49.32) in the outside lane. Thailand’s Pongsakom Paeyo (50.42) was third.
“I knew the Chinese was really strong and that he was one to watch. I thought it was an exciting race, we came out quite even on that last bend, but I just couldn’t catch him. I’m still extremely pleased with two gold medals and this silver medal so far, but I hope to avenge this with a world title in the 800m,” said Lakatos who won four world titles two years ago.
The sixth day of the completion saw the world record counter reach 33, with five records coming in the evening session.
Russia’s Evgenii Torsunov (5.75m) added 11cm to his own world record with a fourth round leap to win the men’s long jump T36. The 2013 world champion Roman Pavlyk (5.54m) of Ukraine took silver with a personal best just ahead of Australia’s Brayden Davidson (5.44m) in bronze.
“Of course I’m so happy to be the world champion and break the world record. I had a really good jump and I’ll hopefully be able to represent my country in Rio as well,” said Torsunov.
Irada Aliyeva (44.18m) of Azerbaijan added more than one and a half metres to the javelin F12 world record as she secured gold with her first throw. Silver and bronze went to Russia’s pre-competition favourite Anna Sorokina (42.66m), who set a personal best, and China’s Yuping Zhao (41.26m) with an Asian record.
There was a first gold for Nigeria in the women’s shot put F40. Lauritta Onye’s opening round of 7.72m added 13cm to her previous world record. The Netherlands’ Lara Baars (6.80m), with a European record, and Tunisia’s Rima Abdelli (6.75m) claimed silver and bronze respectively.
The USA’s Rachael Morrison bounced back following disappointment in the club throw, with gold and a world record in the discus F52. The F51 thrower’s best of 12.86m placed her in front of Mexico’s Leticia Ochoa Delgado (10.66m) in silver. Bronze with a European record went to Great Britain’s Joanna Butterfield (8.96m).
The heats of the men’s 200m T42 saw eight of the 12 competing athletes set personal bests. Great Britain’s Richard Whitehead led the way taking 0.28 seconds off his own world record set at London 2012.
The Peninsula
