Records fall in para-athletics at 2014 Asian Para Games

China’s Junfei Chen and Kuwait’s Ahmad Almutairi both smashed world records on Monday (20 October) as records continued to fall on the second day of para-athletics competition at the 2014 Asian Para Games in Incheon, South Korea.

Two world and eight Asian records were broken on a day when China again led the way winning 14 out of 27 medal events.

After winning the 200m on Sunday (19 October), Chen had a busy day on Monday competing in two events.

In the 400m, she ran a blistering 1:02.53 to win gold and knock nearly six seconds off her own T38 world record set in April. In a mixed class race, Chen’s compatriot Yingli Li (1:07.79) also broke the T37 Asian record to take the bronze.

Less than seven hours later, Chen (13:50) completed her hat-trick of sprint titles with a new Asian record in the 100m T35/37/38. Teammate Li (14.41) this time claimed silver setting her second T37 Asian record of the day.

In the men’s 100m T34, Almutairi (16.81) set a new T33 world record to secure silver behind the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Mohamed Alhammadi (15.99), who himself set a new Asian record in securing the gold.

China won further gold medals on the track through Cuiqing Liu (12.45) and guide Donglin Xu in the women’s 100m T11, Qichao Sun (22.85) in the men’s 200m T12, Yang Liu (47.09) in the men’s 400m T54 and Hongzhuan Zhou (3:33.28) in the women’s 1,500m T54

For the hosts, Min-Jae Jeon (15.60) added the 100m T36 title to the 200m T36 gold she won on Sunday.

In men’s track events, there also wins for Chinese Taipei’s Chuan-Hui Yang (11.70) and guide Te-Tseng Huang in the 100m T11, Malaysia’s Mohammad Mat Lazin (12.38) in the 100m T36, Thailand’s Peth Rungsri (18.89) in the 100m T52, Japan’s Shinya Wada (4:20.45) and guide Kazumitsu Imaki in the 1,500m T11 and Uzbekistan’s Marufjon Murodulloev (4:10.60) in the 1,500m T46

In the field four Asian records were broken and one equalled by gold medallists including Iran’s Mohammad Alvanpour (37.23m) in the men’s javelin F55/56, China’s Liwan Wang (18.06m) in the women’s discus F52/53/54 and Malaysia’s Mohamad Mohamad Puzi (5.42m) in the men’s long jump T36/37/38.

On a successful day for India, Amit Kumar (21.31m) broke his own club throw F51 Asian record for gold in the F31/32/51 event whilst teammate Sharad Kumar (1.80m), a T42 athlete, equalled the 12-year-old regional record to win the men’s high jump T42/44/47.

Elsewhere China won seven further field titles with two athletes picking up their second gold medals of the Games; Yanzhang Wang (43.29m) in the men’s discus F34 and Liangmin Zhang (11.39m) in the women’s shot put F11/12.

Juan Yao (12.30m) in the women’s shot put, Feixia Dong (15.64m) in the women’s javelin F55/56, Dona Xia (15.25m) in the men’s shot put F37, Chunliang Guo (58.89m) in the men’s javelin F46 and Fuliang Liu (6.73m) in the men’s long jump T47 also picked up gold for the 2010 Asian Para Games host country.

Finally, Qatar’s Sara Hamdi Masoud (9.86m) secured her second gold of Incheon 2014 with a personal best in the women’s discus F33/34 and Uzbekistan’s Mavlonbek Haydarov (14.39m) topped the podium in the men’s shot put F11/12.

The 2014 Asian Para Games opened on Saturday 18 October and will run through to Friday 24 October. Athletes from 41 countries will compete in 23 sports.