Cerebral Palsy Sport athletes Rafi Solaiman and Ellie Simpson (Cerebral Palsy Sport Young Sporting Ambassador) both took silver medals at the inaugural World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai on 15th November 2019.
Gavin Drysdale and Kayleigh Haggo (both coached by Ian Mirfin; Red Star) won the world titles in the RR3 (RaceRunning) 100m category, which was making its debut at the World Para Athletics Championships on the final day of action.
European champion Gavin Drysdale won the world title, lowering the world record to 16.72s (-0.4), ahead of Rafi Solaiman (Philip Fleetwood; Sheffield & Dearne) the silver to make it two Briton’s on the podium, his time recorded at 17.38s.
In the women’s race Kayleigh Haggo (Ian Mirfin; Red Star) won her first world title also in world record time. The 20-year-old was pushed all the way by her teammate Ellie Simpson (Jessica Davidson; Sheffield & Dearne), the pair separated by just 0.55s in the end with personal best times of 18.32s (-0.1) and 18.87s respectively to earn their moment on top of the podium.
Image credit: Ben Booth
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Congratulations also goes to Anna Nicolson, a Cerebral Palsy Sport participant who came 4th in the Shot Put event, with a fantastic PB of 8m 47.
British Athletics Medal Tally (29):
Gold:
Hollie Arnold – F46 Javelin
Paul Blake – T36 800m
Jonathan Broom-Edwards – T64 High Jump
Hannah Cockroft – T34 100m & 800m
Aled Davies – F63 Shot Put
Gavin Drysdale – RR3 100m
Sabrina Fortune – F20 Shot Put
Kayleigh Haggo – RR3 100m
Sophie Hahn – T38 100m & 200m
Maria Lyle – T35 100m & 200m
Silver:
Kare Adenegan – T34 100m & 800m
Jo Butterfield – F51 Club Throw
Kadeena Cox – T38 400m
Derek Rae – T46 Marathon*
Ellie Simpson – RR3 100m
Rafi Solaiman – RR3 100m
Andrew Small – T33 100m
Richard Whiteheaad – T61 200m
Thomas Young – T38 100m
Bronze:
Olivia Breen – T38 Long Jump
Richard Chiassaro – T54 400m
Kyron Duke – F41 Shot Put
Harri Jenkins – T33 100m
Sammi Kinghorn – T53 100m
Vanessa Wallace – F34 Shot Put
Results can be found at https://www.paralympic.org/dubai-2019/schedule/.