By Megha Mallick,News18

Copyright news18

The 12th edition of the World Para Athletics Championships is all set to be played at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi from Saturday, September 27 and will go on till Sunday, October 5, in what promises to be a week-long fiesta in the national capital.
This edition will include 186 medal events: 101 for men, 84 for women and one mixed event, 15 more than at the previous championships held in Kobe, Japan.
The last edition of the marquee event saw China top the medal list with 33 gold medals, with Brazil second with 19 golds. India won six gold medals, as many bronze and five silver medals, finishing sixth.
At the Paris Paralympics, track and field events contributed 17 medals to India, to the total of 29. With four gold medals in athletics, they bagged the highest number of gold medals from any single discipline.
At the World Para Athletics Championships starting Saturday, 73 Indian athletes will be in action.
At last year’s Championships, sprinter Preethi Pal won bronze in the T35 100m race. It is a category for athletes who have coordination impairments such as hypertonia and ataxia. She also won bronze in the T35 200m race.
Simran Sharma won gold in the T12 200m sprint. It is a medical-based Paralympic classification for blind sport.
Deepthi Jivanji won gold in the T20 400m sprint. It is a disability sport classification for athletics in track and jump events. It covers athletes with intellectual disabilities.
But a lot of eyes will be on javelin thrower Sumit Antil, the current world record holder and two-time Paralympic gold medallist.
Also in focus will be Greece’s Athanasios Ghavelas, who is a two-time Paralympic gold medallist and won gold at the 2023 Paris World Championships as well. He competes in the 100m T11 sprint, which is for athletes with a visual impairment. A T11 athlete may be without sight, or be able to perceive light, but cannot see the shape of a hand at any distance.
Switzerland’s Catherine Debrunner is another athlete to look out for. She is a six-time Paralympic gold medallist and has five gold medals from World Championships. She competes in the 400m T53 event, which is for wheelchair athletes with normal use of arms and hands, no or limited trunk function and no leg function.
When & Where To Watch The World Para Athletics Championships?
The first session of the World Para Athletics Championships starts at 9 am IST on Saturday, with the men’s shot put F55 qualifying round setting off proceedings. It will be followed by the women’s long jump T37 finals, scheduled to start at 9:25 am IST.
The second session starts at 5 pm IST, with the men’s club throw F32 qualifying. It will be followed by the men’s long jump T11 final, scheduled to start at 5:15 pm IST.
In India, Prasar Bharti holds the official broadcast rights, with events to be streamed live on Doordarshan’s national channel DD Sports and the Waves app.