Para athletics stars heading to Kobe for 2024 World Championships

The Para Athletics World Championships will come to East Asia for the first time this May when Kobe, Japan hosts 1073 athletes from 104 nations at the Kobe Universiade Memorial Stadium.

The 11th edition of the World Championships is also the first to take place in the same year of the Paralympic Games. Kobe 2024 will see 168 new champions crowned just three months before the Paralympics in Paris. 

Paul Fitzgerald, Head of World Para Athletics, said: “The World Championships are the largest single Para sport event in the world. Each edition represents a new and important step in the growth and development of our sport. Para athletics supporters in Japan were not able to experience, in person, the brilliance of these athletes during the Tokyo Paralympic Games. Now we are finally here and have the chance to deliver a World Championships like no other.” 

There will be plenty of Paralympic and World Champions vying for more gold in Kobe. 

From the Americas region, USA’s Ezra Frech and Cuba’s Omara Durand are some of the stars to watch out for in Kobe.

Among the best European athletes competing in Japan will be Great Britain’s Hannah Cockroft and Germany’s Markus Rehm.

From Africa, Morocco’s Paralympic champion Ayoub Sadni and Tunisia’s Raoua Tlili will be defending their world titles in Kobe.

Australia’s James Turner and New Zealand’s Holly Robinson are some of the top names from Oceania coming to Japan in May.

China topped the medals table in the last four World Championships and will bring many defending World Championships, such as Pengxiang Sun and Yiting Shi.

Other Asian reigning champions at this year’s Worlds are India’s Sumit Antil and Uzbekistan’s Asila Mirzayorova.

Hosts Japan collected four gold medals and 11 podiums at last year’s World Championships in Paris, including a third consecutive world title for Tomoki Sato in the men’s 1500m T52.  66  Japanese athletes - strong home team will be aiming for more glory with the support of the home crowd.

The 11th edition of the Para Athletics World Championships will be held from 17 to 25 May 2024. The World Championships will be held at the Kobe Universiade Memorial Stadium, one of Japan's leading multi-purpose stadiums built in conjunction with the 1985 Summer Universiade. 

This will be the first edition of the Para Athletics World Championships in East Asia, as well as the third edition in Asia following Doha 2015 in Qatar and Dubai 2019 in the United Arab Emirates.