World Para Athletics Championships:
Javelin, shot put glories push Iran’s medal tally into double figures
Ali Baziyar grabbed the sixth gold medal for Iran at the World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi, setting a new championship record on his way to glory in the men’s javelin throw F54 event on Saturday.
The Iranian delivered a 32.24m effort on his fourth attempt to beat reigning Paralympic champion Ivan Revenko for the ultimate prize, despite the Russian, competing as a neutral athlete, breaking the European record with 31.68m.
Baziyar’s compatriot Erfan Bondori impressed with a personal-best 31.23m throw but settled for the bronze, taking Iran’s medal count to 12 across eight days of action at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
Saturday’s medals came after Ali Asghar Javanmardi and Hassan Bajoulvand had bagged a couple of golds for Iran in the men’s field events the previous day.
A Paralympic bronze winner last year, Javanmardi secured his first world title in the shot put F35 contest, following the 2024 silver and the 2017 bronze – thanks to a 17.17m throw on his penultimate attempt.
Argentina’s three-time Paralympic silver medalist Hernán Emanuel Urra finished runner-up to the Iranian with 16.77m, with China’s Fu Xinhan (15.64m) taking the bronze.
Paralympic silver medalist Bajoulvand, meanwhile, registered a season-best 41.7m effort to finish atop the podium in the discus throw F11 class, with Brazilian world-record holder Alessandro Rodrigo Silva (40.14m) and Spain’s Alvaro del Amo Cano (39.28m) settling for silver and bronze respectively.
On Thursday, two-time Paralympic champion Saeid Afrooz claimed his third world title in the men’s javelin throw F34 discipline.
The Iranian recorded a 41.52m throw with his fifth attempt, breaking his own world record from last year’s Paris Paralympics by 36 centimeters.
Elham Salehi won the gold in the women’s javelin throw F54 event on Wednesday, thanks to a successful 17.06m attempt – the Iranian girl’s second medal in New Delhi, following her bronze-winning campaign in the shot put F54 event on the preceding day.
Iran’s second javelin medal in the women’s competition on Wednesday came in the F56 class, where Zeinab Moradi finished with a bronze.
Hajar Safarzadeh has been the only Iranian medalist in the track events, winning the silver in the women’s 400m T12 contest on Wednesday.
It was an all-Iranian one-two in the men’s shot put F11 final on Tuesday, as reigning Paralympic champion Amirhossein Alipour defended his world title in style, shattering the championship record with a 14.59m throw.
Three-time Paralympic medalist Mahdi Olad, who won the silver of the category in Paris, again had to settle for a runner-up finish behind his fellow Iranian, courtesy of a season-best 14.23 throw.
Amanollah Papi got Iran off the mark in New Delhi on Sunday, winning a bronze in the men’s javelin throw F57 event.