Whitehead Breaks 200m World Record at IPC Euros

Great Britain's Richard Whitehead broke the 200m T42 world record and Russia picked up eight golds on the fourth day of the IPC Athletics European Championships. 28 Jun 2012

The IPC Athletics European Championships, featuring 520 athletes from 38 countries, will run through Thursday and are the last major international Athletics event ahead of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Great Britain’s Richard Whitehead broke the 200m T42 world record and Russia picked up eight more gold medals on the fourth day of the IPC Athletics European Championships in Stadskanaal, the Netherlands.

In the 200m T42 sprint, Whitehead, a double above-the-knee amputee, smashed his own world record he set last month by more than six tenths of a second en route to winning gold in a time of 24.93. Denmark’s Daniel Jorgensen finished second and Iceland’s Helgi Sveinsson placed third.

It was the eighth world record broken at the Championships, which still have one more day in store.

The Russian delegation, meanwhile, solidified its place at the top of the medals table, racking more hardware to move to 24 total golds and 61 overall medals at the Championships.

Ukraine follows in the Championship standings with 14 golds and 36 overall medals, and then Poland with eight golds and 23 overall medals and the Netherlands with eight golds and 20 overall medals.

Gocha Khugaev led Russia, breaking the European record in the 200m T37 event, as his time of 23.54 was the top in a Russian sweep. Roman Kapranov (24.09) took silver and Alexandr Lyashchenko (24.40) garnered bronze in a crowded field.

The Russians just kept going throughout the day, as defending Paralympic champion and world-record holder Alexey Ashapatov (15.87m) won the Shot Put F56/F57/F58 and Marta Prokofyeva took gold in the Shot Put F11/12 (12.56m). Egor Sharov won the 1,500m T13 (3:58.24) and Alexey Bychenok (1:44.66) made his way to the top of the podium in the 800m T54 event.

Ukraine’s Olena Gliebova set a new European record in the 100m T13 event, sprinting ahead of the pack to finish the race in 12.40, ahead of Germany’s Janne Sophie Engeleiter (13.67) and Poland’s Anna Duzikowska (13.82)

The Ukrainians also received top performances from Mykyta Senyk and Roman Pavlyk on the track, as both recorded season bests. Senyk won a stacked field in the 200m T38 sprint, finishing in a time of 23.61, just .04 off the world-record mark set by Greece’s Aristotelis Marinos at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games.

Spain’s Lorenzo Albaladejo Martinez (24.30) garnered silver and Ukraine’s Andriy Onufriyenko (24.54) secured bronze.

Pavlyk’s season-best came in the 200m T36 final on the men’s side, as he topped British favourite and European world-record holder Ben Rushgrove, as well as Graeme Ballard, to win the title in just 24.98.

Italy’s Oxana Corso also set a new European record, racing the 100m T35 final in 16.07 and beating former record-holder Sophia Warner (16.70) of Great Britain in the process.

Visually impaired British sprinters Tracey Hinton and Libby Clegg both won the 200m in the T11 and T12 classes, respectively. Hinton ran her race to gold in 27.31 and Clegg captured a time of 25.47 in her victory.

Orla Barry proved why Ireland has a strong delegation on the field, winning the Discus F57/F58 (29.65m/966 points). Bulgaria’s Stela Eneva won silver (36.29m/919 points) and Russia’s Larisa Volik took the bronze (25.26m/816 points).

In the hotly contested Javelin F40 event, Germany’s European record-holder Mathias Mester threw 37.38m to secure gold, Slovakia’s Marek Margoc won silver with a distance of 32.48m and Great Britain’s Kyron Duke’s 31.43m distance was good enough for bronze.

Norway’s Runar Steinstan picked up a nice first-place finish in the Javelin F42 with a season-best distance of 47.94m. Sveinsson took silver (46.52m) and Bulgaria’s Dechko Ovcharov (45.71m) grabbed bronze.

Spain’s Jose Antonio Exposito Pineiro set a season-best mark of 7.25m to top the podium in the Long Jump F20 and Belarus’ Ihar Fartunau won the Long Jump F13 with a 6.67m jump.

The IPC Athletics European Championships, featuring 520 athletes from 38 countries, will run through Thursday and are the last major international Athletics event ahead of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

For more information on the event and complete results from the fourth day of competition, please visit www.ipcathleticseurochamps.com. To follow live results from the competition the rest of the week, please click on the event schedule/results.