In Review: Day Six At The World Para Athletics Championships

​By Daniel Mcinally

 

Team GB's Samantha Kinghorn continued to impress tonight after finishing third in the T53 400 metres. In what proved to be an incredibly tight race, Kinghorn finished above fourth placed Angela Ballard of Australia by 0.11 seconds. 

“My arms felt like they were going to fall off, it was so close but I can’t believe I’ve got another medal,” she said.

“I can’t wait to watch back Rio and then today, I came sixth in Rio so to come third... it's amazing.

It’s fantastic to be in this stadium, people underestimate what a home crowd can do, when your name is cheered the loudest it spurs you on, I soaked it all up”

Samantha now has the 800m and 100m on Sunday, and should she add any more medals to her already impressive gold and bronze in London, it would be an incredible achievement for the T53 athlete.

The other Brit competing on day six was Maria Lyle, who secured her second medal of the World Para Athletics Championships during the T35 100m, getting her second bronze following a heroic run. After battling through injury the past few weeks, it didn’t look like Maria would be able to compete at all, however it’s a testament to her self-belief and her ability that she has been able to come back stronger and win two gold medals at London Stadium

 “I’ve had a lot of pain killers and injections just so I could run, and that was thanks to the British Athletics medical team who have got me here," she said.

"Last week I wasn’t really able to walk let alone run, so it’s been a big turnaround."

In one of the final events of day six, a world record was broken with some style. Uzbekistan’s Aleksandr Syechnikov threw an incredible 71.01m in the F13 Javelin final, to smash his own world record by a full metre and pick up his country's third gold medal of the championships.