
TASTE OF SUCCESS: China's Yuping Zhao (C) pose with her women’s javelin throw gold medal along with silver medallist Anna Kulinich-Sorokina of Russia and bronze medallist Anna Kayumova of Uzbekistan. ⒸLuc Percival (World Para Athletics)
China continue to dominate the Dubai 2019 World Para Athletics Championships with two more gold medals to take their overall tally to 11 golds.
Their first gold today came from Yuping Zhao, who set a new world record in the women’s javelin F13 with a massive 46.00m throw.
“I’m really excited about my record. After months of training really hard, I got a really good result. This world record is because of the hard work that I put in,” said a delighted Zhao.
Russia’s Anna Kulinich-Sorokina took silver with a 38.87m throw while Anna Kayumova of Uzbekistan settled for bronze with a 38.86m distance.
China have dominated the medals table since Doha 2015 where they won 41 golds and 30 gold medals in London 2017.
Zhao’s assistant guide Xiuquing Li revealed the secret behind the team’s success: “Every individual success is backed by our country with the support from the government and all the teams behind us. That is the main reason to get all the good results.
“It is also about our athlete’s hard work, training everyday and giving the best in all the competitions.”
Monday’s victory was Zhao’s second world title..
“Any gold medal for China makes us proud and it’s an honour for me to win the 10th gold. But even more special is to have the chance to be here and fight for our country,” asserted Zhao.
“I’m very excited about the future. The main goal is Tokyo 2020 but, before that, I have to continue working hard. I’ll train really hard to get an even better result than here.”
Zhao’s gold medal wasn’t the only one for China during the morning session as Hao Wang won the men’s long jump T47 with a 7.29m leap. USA athletes finished on the podium with Roderick Townsend-Roberts soaring to a 7.27m height and Tobi Fawehinmi leaping 7.17m.
Ukraine won two more golds on in the morning session and moved to second in the medals table ahead of Brazil.
Zoia Ovsii set a new world record of 25.23m in the women’s club throw F51. Joanna Butterfield (21.67) from Great Britain bagged silver and Russian Elena Gorlova (20.34) took bronze.
Nataliia Kobzar won the women’s 400m F37 in a time of 1:02.44 followed by China’s Fenfen Jiang in 1:02.90 and South Africa’s Sheryl James clocking in at 1:06.06.
Rio 2016 Paralympic champion Diana Dadtzite gave Latvia their second gold with her victory in the women’s javelin F56. She threw te javelin to a 25.54m distance while Hashemiyeh Motandhian of Iran finished second with a 22.67m effort. Brazilian Raissa Rocha took the bronze with a 22.28m heave.
Cameron Crombie claimed Australia’s third gold medal in the men’s shot put F38 with a 15.73m effort. Ukraine’s Oleksandr Doroshenko (15.27) won his second silver, while Crombie’s teammate Marty Jackson (15.14) secured bronze.
USA’s Deja Young set the third world record of the day in the third heat of the women’s 100m T47 with a time of 11.92s. The final will take place on Tuesday evening.