Brazil cement top spot, Debrunner wins fourth gold in World Para Athletics New Delhi 2025

New Delhi: Brazil’s Antonia Keyla Da Silva Barros broke a long-standing women’s 1500m T20 World Record in winning gold in 4 minutes 19.22 seconds in the IndianOil New Delhi 2025 World Para Athletics Championships here on Thursday. Her win tasted sweeter as she beat six-time metric mile World Champion Barbara Bieganowska-Zajac (Poland).

She knew Barbara Bieganowska-Zajac, who set the World Record in 2012 and has won three Paralympic Games golds medals over the distance, has a devastating kick and built a big lead before the final lap.  Her brave running helped her complete her transition from being a guide runner for fellow Brazilian Edneusa de Jesus Santos Dorta in Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

With Wanna Brito Oliveria also winning the women’s Shot Put F32 gold with a World Record, Brazil’s cup of joy was overflowing as it cemented its place at the top of the medal table with 12 gold, 16 silver and 7 bronze, leaving China (8-10-9) with a stiff challenge over the next three days.

Yet, it was Catherine Debrunner of Switzerland who emerged the undisputed individual star of New Delhi 2025 by claiming her fourth gold medal in as many starts. The versatile athlete has won in track events ranging from 100m to 5000m. She won the 100m T53 on Thursday night with a Championships record to add to her 800m T53, 1500 T54 and 5000m T54 victories.

For India, Paris 2024 Paralympic Games champion Dharambir Nain, 36, and Atul Kaushik, 29, added a silver and a bronze medal respectively to India’s kitty but, without a gold medal in two days, the home team slipped to the seventh place on the table with 4 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze medals from the fourth spot overnight.

Dharambir Nain won a silver

Italy and Switzerland won their fifth gold medals each on Thursday and Karen T Palomeque M claimed the women’s 200m T38 gold to help Colombia edge to the sixth place with more silver medals than India. Brazil ensconced itself at the top with 12 gold, 16 silver and 7 bronze medals ahead of China (8-10-9) and Poland (5-1-1) after six days of competition.

For a while, Dharambir placed himself in the lead with a best throw of 29.71m on his final try but Serbia’s Aleksandar Radisic opened with a 30.36m effort to edge ahead of Dharambir Nain. Pranav Soorma, who was silver medalist in Paris 2024, finished fifth in the nine-athlete competition in which the Indians were expected to dominate again.

Atul Kaushik had to endure a long and agonising wait before his bronze medal was confirmed. Uzbekistan’s Yorkinbek Odilov, who was drawn to throw last, produced a 45.05m effort on his fifth try and send a bigger final throw out of the sector. The 29-year-old Indian and his supporters could heave a sigh of relief that a podium place was assured at last.

Earlier, for the second time on Thursday, an Indian finished fourth after having raised visions of winning a medal. After Haney in the men’s Discus Throw F37 in the morning, it was Dilip Mahadu Gavit’s turn to leave the arena disappointed – and perhaps distraught – at not being able to hold on to a medal position.

The 22-year-old Gavit had gained an advantage at the halfway stage but was unable to sustain his pace either on the second bend on the hone straight and had to settle for fourth place, clocking 48.61 seconds. When he analyses his race, he will find that the four quarters took him 11.55 seconds, 10.85 seconds, 12.34 seconds and 13.87 seconds respectively.

The men’s Long Jump T64 and men’s Shot Put F46 finals were moved from the evening’s schedule after a rain interruption impacted the evening’s programme. To the credit of the organisers, the men’s Discus Throw T57 and men’s Club Throw F51 finals resumed after the break and were completed.

The results (finals)

Men

100m T53: 1. Pongsakorn Paeyo (Thailand) 14.55 seconds; 2. Abdulrahman Alqurashi (Saudi Arabia) 14.65; 3. Yoo Byonghoon (South Korea) 15.51.

400m T47: 1. Aymane El Haddaoui (Morocco) 47.14 seconds; 2. Thomas Ruan de Moraes (Brazil) 47.90; 3. Collen Mahlalela (South Africa) 48.04; 4. Dilip Mahadu Gavit (India) 48.61.

Long Jump T44: 1. Mario Cicchetti (Italy) 6.98m; 2. Dzmitry Bartashevich (Neutral Para Athlete) 6.90; 3. Indika Gamage (Sri Lanka) 6.46;  5. Mit Bharatbhai Patel (India) 6.28; 6. Unni Renu 5.96; 8. Pardeep (India) 5.30.

Discus Throw T57: 1. Mahmoud Rajab (Libya) 46.73m (New Championships Record. Old: 46.58, Thiago Paulino Dos Santos, Brazil, 2017); 2. Thiago Paulino Dos Santos (Brazil) 45.69; 3. Atul Kaushik (Indioa) 45.61; 7.Priyans Kumar (India) 42.52.

Club Throw F51: 1. Aleksandar Radisic (Serbia) 30.36m; 2. Dharambir (India) 29.71; 3. Uladzislau Hryb (Neutral Para Athlete) 28.70; 5.Pranav Soorma (India) 28.19.

Women

100m T53: 1. Catherine Debrunner (Switzerland) 15.50 seconds (New Championships Record. Old. 16.27, Gao Feng, China, 2019); 2. Hamide Gogangun (Turkiye) 15.96; 3. Zhou Hongzhuan (China) 16.57.

100m T54: 1. Noemi Alphonse (Mauritius) 16.07 seconds; 2. Zubeyde Supurgeci (Turkiye) 16.19; 3. Zhou Zhaoqian (China) 16.22.

200m T38: 1. Karen T Palomeque M (Colombia) 24.98 seconds (New World Record. Old WR: 25.07, Karen T Palomeque M, 2025; Old CR: 25.78, Luca Ekler, Hungary, 2023); 2. Angie N Mejia Morales (Colombia) 25.47; 3. Luca Ekler (Hungary) 25.96.

1500m T20: 1. Antonia Keyla Da Silva Barros (Brazil) 4:19.22 (New World Record. Old: 4:23.37, Barbara Bieganowska-Zajac, Poland, 2012; Old CR: 4:28.58, Barbara Bieganowska-Zajac, 2015); 2. Barbara Bieganowska-Zajac (Poland) 4:29.60; 3. Annabelle Colman (Australia) 4:35.56.

Shot Put F32: 1. Wanna Brito Oliveria (Brazil) 8.49m (New World Record. Old WR: 8.18, Wanna Brito Oliveria, Brazil, 2025); Old CR: 6.92, Anastasia Moskalenko, Ukraine, 2019); 2. Anastasia Moskalenko (Ukraine) 8.07; 3. Evgeniia Galaktionova (Neutral Para Athlete) 7.58.

Tags : Brazil, Gold, Antonia Keyla Da Silva Barros, Catherine Debrunner, Switzerland, World Para Athletics