IPC Athletics reveals Ones to Watch list for 2015 season

21.01.2015

Between them the 45 athletes from 19 different countries have won 69 Paralympic gold medals, 124 world titles and currently hold 64 world records.

Brazilian athlete Terezinha Guilhermina with her guide at the London 2012 Paralympic Games © • www.photo-hartmann.de

By IPC

To mark nine months to go until the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha, Qatar, IPC Athletics, the international federation for para-athletics, has named 45 athletes to its Ones to Watch list for the forthcoming season.

The Ones to Watch identifies some of the leading athletes from around the world who are medal contenders at either April’s IPC Athletics Marathon World Championships in London, Great Britain, or October’s track and field World Championships.

Between them the 45 athletes from 19 different nationalities have won 69 Paralympic gold medals, 124 world titles and currently hold 64 world records.

The list includes the USA’s Tatyana McFadden (T54), Australia’s Evan O’Hanlon (T38), Great Britain’s Hannah Cockroft (T34), Ireland’s Jason Smyth (T12), Cuba’s Yunidis Castillo and the Netherlands’ Marlou van Rhijn (T43).

Featured on the list are also a number of athletes involved in great rivalries who are likely to lock horns throughout the season at events outside of the World Championships, such as the IPC Athletics Grand Prix which start in March in Brisbane, Australia. They include:

• Germany’s Heinrich Popow and Australia’s Scott Reardon – who tied for the 100m T42 world title in 2013

• Great Britain’s David Weir and Switzerland’s Marcel Hug – T54 wheelchair racing rivals who last clashed for major medals at London 2012

• The USA’s Jeremy Campbell and Great Britain’s Dan Greaves – who regularly battle it out for the top two places in men’s discus F44

• Italy’s Martina Caironi and Germany’s Vanessa Low – likely to battle it out in the T42 class over 100m and the long jump

• Great Britain’s Jonnie Peacock and the USA’s Richard Browne – fierce rivals since London 2012 who have dominated the 100m T44

With Rio 2016 less than 18 months away, four Brazilian sprinters feature on the list; Terezinha Guilhermina (T11), Lucas Prado (T11), Yohansson Nascimento (T46) and Veronica Hipolito (T38).

Amongst the newcomers to the list in 2015 are Australia’s T34 racer Rheed McCracken, the USA’s F51 thrower Rachael Morrison, Switzerland’s wheelchair racer Manuela Schaer, China’s T11 sprinter Cuiqing Lu and Poland’s T47 sprinter Michal Mateusz Derus.

Great Britain’s sprint sensation Maria Lyle, who set new 100m and 200m T35 world records last year during her debut season, also makes the list for the first time. At just 14-years-old, she is the youngest of the Ones to Watch for 2015.

Canada’s T53 wheelchair racing ace Brent Lakatos and Great Britain’s long jump T44 world record holder Stef Reid both feature; the first time a husband and wife have made the Ones to Watch list together at the same time.

The 20 women and 25 men who make up the 2015 IPC Athletics Ones to Watch list are:

Women

• Johanna Benson T37 (Namibia)

• Martina Caironi T42 (Italy)

• Yunidis Castillo T46 (Cuba)

• Hannah Cockroft T34 (Great Britain)

• Mandy Francois-Elie T37 (France)

• Margarita Goncharova T38 (Russia)

• Terezinha Guilhermina T11 (Brazil)

• Ilse Hayes T13 (South Africa)

• Sophie Hahn T38 (Great Britain)

• Veronica Hipolito T38 (Brazil)