2023 World Para Athletics Championships - China top as Britain show promise for Paralympics

As the 2023 edition of the World Para Athletics Championships conclude, we can see the early indications of who could look to perform at the upcoming Paralympics in Paris, next year.

With 171 medal events and 62 countries competing to be at the top of the para athletics table, some thrived whilst some fell short.

China continued their domination as they finished first for the fourth edition in a row with a total of 16 gold medals, 16 silvers, and 13 bronze.

With two gold medals on the final day, Pengxiang Sun set a world record with a 47.55m throw in the men's javelin F41 title - Xia Zhou also claimed gold in the T35 100m final, completing it in 13.64 seconds whilst compatriot Qianqian Guo came second with a personal best of 14.01 seconds.

That was enough for China to finish first in the standings ahead of Brazil in second with 14 gold medals, and the United States with ten.

Great Britain finished fourth with ten gold medals, eight silver, and 11 bronze as ParalympicsGB look towards Paris for next year's games.

Aled Davies' performance on the final day to see him achieve another gold medal in the F63 shot put, his fifth consecutive world title since Lyon 2013.

In a more spectacular moment, Hannah Cockroft achieved her 14th world title on night nine of the tournament as she won the T34 800m, blowing the competition out of the water by gathering a 20m lead by the 300m mark.

She added to her gold medal she already claimed in the T34 100m.

Fellow compatriot Kare Adenegan also clinched silver in the event with a time of 1:59.62.

Gavin Drydale, Johnathan Broom-Edwards, and Sami Kinghorn were also amongst the names to win gold in Paris.

Full list of medal winners can be found here: https://www.britishathletics.org.uk/news-and-features/davies-wins-fifth-world-shot-put-title-as-gbni-end-on-a-high-with-29-medals/

Speaking to the BBC, Tom Paulson believed ParalympicsGB are in a "good position" going into the games, next summer.

Paulson oversaw his first major event since taking over as UK Athletics' head of Paralympic Performance in August, last year.

He told the BBC: "It has been a really positive week for the team.

"It has been great to see those experienced hands coming back into the World Championship environment and delivering on the big stage.

"But we've had some new faces coming through who have really stepped up and that has been great to see as well - people like Zac Shaw, Ben Sandilands and Zak Skinner who have all won global medals for the first time."

Onto another piece of great news, the reception for the event was well received over the ten days as the Charlety Stadium saw crowds flock to the 20,000-seater stadium.

The event was well advertised prior and even sold 100,000 tickets which after the little-to-no crowds in Doha and Dubai in 2015 and 2019 respectively, and the unfortunate behind-closed-doors nature of the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, it is still refreshing to see the demand for para athletics is still greatly present.

Competition director Balduzzi is pleased as it presents the first stepping stone to the Paris Paralympics, next year.

In terms of breakthroughs, GB's Jonnie Peacock was beaten by Mexico's Maxcel Amo Manu in the T64 100m.

Jaydin Blackwell, an American teenager also swooped double gold medals in T38 100m and 400m to announce himself on the world stage.

Also, despite adversity in their home country, Ukraine showed great might as they took home 22 medals in Paris, including 10 golds.

With the tournament being a huge success given the circumstances of COVID in previous years, we could be looking at an exceptional Paralympics next year as Paris proved itself to be a beautifully organised spectacle for the officials, athletes, and fans who themselves are being welcomed back emphatically by the whole para athletic community,