by Stuart Weir
The World Para Athletics Championships – overview
Para athletics seems very complicated to the uninitiated, struggling to distinguish your T20 from you F63! T=Track and F is Field. The numbers reflect a complex classification system which is designed to ensure that each athlete has a fair chance with amputees competing against athletes with a similar disability etc.
The aim is to give everyone a chance to compete. If you can’t see, run with a guide. If you can’t walk, race is a wheelchair etc. It is a bit complex, though. It is easy to remember that Melissa Jefferson-Wooden is the World Athletics 100m champion but what about the IPC 100 m champion – actually there are 10 of them in the different classifications.
At Delhi earlier this month 504 medals were awarded with 63 different countries winning at least one medal. In comparison 149 medals were awarded in Tokyo last month.
It is hard to write about Para sport without seeming patronizing. The firs thing to note is that para athletes are athletes. They are in many cases professional athletes who train every day. The two disciplines which always amaze me most are the amputee high-jump, where an athlete takes off a prosthetic, hopped to the bar and clears it or the blind long-jump where the athlete is places on the run-up with a coach calling out to indicate where the sandpit is. Literally a leap in the dark.
Here are some images from the 2025 IPC Worlds.
