For immediate release

January 25, 2011

Singleton throws down challenge to Pistorius at IPC Athletics

American Jerome Singleton, in getting within 0.02secs of ³blade runner² Oscar Pistorius in today¹s 100m F44 heats, has set up a virtual match race tomorrow at the IPC Athletic World Championships in Christchurch.

South African Pistorius defeated Singleton by 0.03secs at the Beijing Paralympics in 2008 and the American says he has improved dramatically since then.

³He (Pistorius) had better be ready tomorrow because I just cruised the last 50m,² Singleton said at the conclusion of the race.

Pistorius was somewhat more circumspect, acknowledging the American¹s explosive start.

³I did not make a good start today but got into my stride very quickly. It¹s going to be a great race,² he said. Pistorius recorded a time of 11.33secs in winning his heat but knows he will have to go much quicker tomorrow.

American Tatyana McFadden was the individual star of the day with two gold medals. In the women¹s 800m T54 final, the silver medallist at the Beijing Paralympics dominated the field from the gun, taking an early lead, controlling the race through the second lap then sprinting hard from the turn. She defeated Wenjun Liu (China), who trailed throughout, and Canada¹s Diane Roy in a new championship time of 1:51.10. In the afternoon she was just as dominant in the 200m, again defeating Liu in a time of 29.33secs. Switzerland¹s Manuela Schaer was third.

Brazil, with two gold medals and a world record in the first 40 minutes of competition, had a grand opening to the day.

Odair Santos led all the way in the T11 1500m and despite a buffeting wind eclipsed the world record by half a second in winning in 4:04.70 seconds. He was chased home by Samwel Mushai Kimani (Kenya) and Zhen Zhang, of China.

Twenty minutes later Brazil took out the quinella in the women¹s 100m T 11 event with world record holder Terezinha Guilhermina winning gold from Jerusa Geber Santos in 12.18sec, just outside the world record she set yesterday. Chunmiao Wu (China) was third.

The wind foiled Russian Elena Pautova¹s world record aspirations in the 1500m T12 where she won comfortably in 4:39.58sec from Spain¹s Elena Congost and fellow Russian Rima Batalova. Tunisia¹s Somaya Bousaid sat behind China¹s Jin Zheng from the gun in the women¹s 1500m T 13 before comfortably outsprinting her in the straight in 4:54.73secs.

Fellow American Anjali Forber Pratt set her second championship record in the women¹s T53 200m, her 29.83sec time being nearly half a second better than yesterday. China filled the two minor places with Lisha Huiang second and Hongzhuan Zhou third.

The third world record for the morning fell in the men¹s long jump F44 with Markus Rehm (Germany) leaping 7.09m from Andre Oliveira (Brazil) and Casey Tibbs (USA).

Lahouari Bahlaz (Algeria) was the star field performer of the morning session with a world record in the men¹s club throw F31/32/51 with a distance of 36.73m, defeating the old record by almost one metre. Second was Radim Beles (Czech Republic) from Stephen Miller (Great Britain).

Maxim Narozhnyy, of Russia, almost followed suit being just outside the world record in the men¹s shot put F42 with a throw of 14.23m, a new championship record. He was hard pushed by Darko Kralj (Croatia) and Fanie Lombaard (South Africa).

The women¹s javelin F57/58 was taken out by Mexico¹s Jeny Velazco Reyes with a throw of 29.21m, ahead of Algeria¹s Safia Djelal and Kenya¹s Mary Nakhumica.

Kelly Cartwright picked up her second gold of the championships in the women¹s T42 100m. On Sunday she had set a world record in the long jump and today her 16.46secs set a new championship time. She defeated the Germans Jana Schmidt and Vanessa Low. Cuban Yunidis Castillo also set a championship record in winning the women¹s T46 in 12.20secs. Russian Nikol Rodomakina took silver and Carlee Beattie (Australia) was third. Liu Ping (China) was too quick in the women¹s 100m T35 in a time of 17.08secs, from Australia¹s Rachael Dodds and Great Britain¹s Sophia Warner. In the women¹s T12 100m Spain¹s Eva Ngui won gold in a time of 12.81secs from Elizabeth Clegg (Great Britain) and Hanka Kolnikova (Slovenia).

In the women¹s 200m T44 event, France¹s Maria Amelie Lefur set a championship record with a time of 27.96secs. Silver went to Katrin Green (Germany) followed by Stefanie Reid (Great Britain) third.

It was a good afternoon for France with Sebastien Mobre also taking gold in the men¹s 100m T34 final in 16.84secs from Mohamed Hammadi (UAE) and Stefan Rusch (Nederlands).

Algeria¹s Hocine Gherzouli waited until his last throw in the men¹s shot put F40 to re-establish his world standing. Trailing silver medallist Paschalis Stathelakos, who had broken Gherzouli¹s old world mark with a throw of 12m earlier, the Algerian produced a 12.21m effort to secure both the new record and the gold medal. Greece also produced the third-placed getter in AM Konstantinidis.

Germany¹s Marianne Buggenhagen won the women¹s F54/55/56 discus with a throw of 26.75m (973) to win gold from Feixia Dong (China) 25.57m (941) and Tatjana Majcen (Slovenia) with a throw of 16.13m (833).

In the men¹s F56 long jump Russia¹s Vladimir Sviridov set a new championship record of 5.29m with his last jump to win gold from Ran Xu (China) and Mariusz Sobczak.

Tomasz Rebisz (Poland) won gold in the Men¹s F46 discus with a throw of 47.44m, a new championship record. The silver medallist was Chunliang (China) and bronze went to Joao Santos, of Brazil.

Just over a second covered the three placegetters in the men¹s 5000m T52 with Austria¹s Thomas Geierspichler prevailing from Santiago Sanz (Spain) and Toshihiro Takada, of Japan.

The men¹s P11-13 pentathlon, which was extremely tight throughout, was won by South Africa¹s Hilton Keith Langenhoven with 3308 points from Branimir Budetic (Croatia) and Thomas Ulbricht (Germany).

In total 29 World records and 85 Championship records have been set over the four days.

For the latest Championship results, please visit the official website at www.ipcathleticsworldchamps.com/results.php

To find out more about the athletes competing in Christchurch please visit the Biographies section of the IPC Athletics website at http://ipc-athletics.paralympic.org/Athletes_Biographies/

Throughout the event, www.ParalympicSport.TV will be broadcasting live coverage of the evening sessions between 2am and 6am GMT.

You can also catch highlights from the previous day on www.youtube.com/paralympicsporttv

In addition to the live coverage from Christchurch, Paralympic sports fans can also get the latest news, gossip and pictures from the World Championships via the IPC's official Facebook page www.facebook.com/ParalympicSportTV and Twitter page www.twitter.com/paralympic

Tickets to see the IPC Athletics World Championships, which run until 30 January are still available to buy can be purchased from www.ticketdirect.co.nz Adult tickets cost just $10 per day.

ENDS

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