World record holders in Men's Discus, Women's Javelin and Women's Shot Put as well as medalists from the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games will all be in action this Sunday evening, September 14, at the National Stadium.
On the field, in the Men's Discus F37/38 (ambulant athletes with different levels of cerebral palsy), F37 world record holder Tomasz Blatkiewicz of Poland(51.75m) goes head-to-head with F38 world record holder Javad Hardani of Iran (46.62m). Blatkiewicz won silver in the Men's Shot Put F37/38 on Saturday.
In the Men's High Jump F44/46 (ambulant athletes with different levels of amputations and other disabilities, including les Autres, eg. dwarfism), Athens gold medalist Wu Yangang of China and runner-up Jeff Skiba from the United States will meet again. Skiba also holds the F44 world record (2.10m set in 2007) and won the Pentathlon-P44 silver medal on Thursday.
The Women's Javelin F54-56 (wheelchair athletes with different levels of spinal cord injuries and amputations) features F54 world record holder Hania Aidi of Tunisia (15.76m), F55 world record holder Marianne Buggenhaggen of Germany (19.66m) and F56 world record holder Martina Monika Willing, also from Germany (24.03m). Also in the start list are Athens F54 gold, silver and bronze medalists Zanele Situ (South Africa), Tatjana Majcen (Slovenia) and Chen Liping (China).
Tamara Sivakova is the lone world record holder in the Women's Shot Put F12/13 (athletes with different levels of visual impairment), with both records in both classes to her name, F12 (13.06m) and F13 (13.05m).
The Women's 100m T44 features world record holder April Holmes (United States) (12.98s), 200m winner Katrin Green (Germany) and local favorite Wang Juan. Holmes was unfortunate in the 200m when she stumbled and fell quite close to the finish line.
The highlight of the evening for China could be the Men's 200m T38, as sprinter Yang Chen takes to the lanes with a qualifying time of 23.19. World record holder Evan O'Hanlon (Australia) (22.49) stands in his way with a faster time of 22.98 in the heats.
The Men's 4 X 400m T53/54 is the only multi-classification event on the track this evening, with Thailand as reigning gold medalist from Athens and world record (3:12.73) holders.
Brazil's Odair Santos holds the world record (31:39.89) for the Men's 10,000m T12, but he competes with a strong line-up that includes 1500m and 5000m T13 gold medalist Henry Kiprono Kirwa from Kenya.
With the Women's 800m T54 and the Women's 200m T54 scheduled hours apart, Chantal Petitclerc (Canada) is on track for her third, and maybe even fourth, gold medal, both in the same night.
(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2008)