Aled Davies (coach: Ryan Spencer-Jones) won the first gold medal for Great Britain at the IPC Athletics World Championships in the F42 Shot Put, throwing a championship record of 14.95m in the final round to take victory over the Iranian Saiad Mohammadian.
It had been a nervous competition from the Welshman after the Mohammadian took an early lead with an area record of 14.54m in the opening round. Opening throws of 14.19m and 14.35m followed by two fouls left the 24 year old needing something special to retain his world title from Lyon two years ago. He threw 14.88m in the penultimate round before he launched the shot out to 14.95m to claim gold, just 10 weeks after undergoing a hernia operation.
Bridgend born Davies said : “It’s probably not the performance I wanted, but I came here and I won a major title and that’s what matters at the end of the day. Mohammadin came out strong with an area record which was really impressive, so I knew I had to up my game. If someone had told me I would go home with a gold medal and a Championship record I would of taken that and ran after my injury, so now all my focus goes on Rio 2016.”
“I am happy I can bring home the gold and I hope I can do it again in the discus next week.”
There were also great performances on the track in Doha on the first day of the Championships with both Jenny McLoughlin (Keith Antoine) and Olivia Breen finishing just outside the medals. McLoughlin finished fifth in the T37 100M final with a time of 16.26 and 19 year old Breen finished fourth with a time of 13.46.
Tomorrow on Day 2 in Doha there will be three Welsh athletes competing including Tony Mills (T44 Long Jump), Sabrina Fortune (F20 Shot Put) and Great Britain Women’s Team Captain Laura Sugar will kick start her Championships in the T44 200m Semi-finals.
Live coverage can be found on More 4 or via the live stream following this linkhttp://paralympics.channel4.com/competitions/athletics-world-championships-2015/video/index.html
Welsh Athletes medal tally at the IPC Athletics World Championships:
Gold: Aled Davies – F42 Shot Put
