The Netherlands claimed the gold medal ahead of Indonesia and Australia in the universal 4x100m relay final. (Photo by IPC ⒸKenta Harada / Getty Images)
Fleur Jong won her third gold medal of the New Delhi 2025 World Para Athletics Championships as she led the Netherlands to victory in the universal 4x100m relay final.
Competing alongside Zara Temmink, Stijn van Bergen and Lito Anker, the 100m and long jump T64 champion made it a clean sweep of gold medals at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium with her 10th global title.
In the universal relay, each team has two men and two women, who can compete in any of the four legs. The first 100m is run by an athlete with a visual impairment, followed by an amputee athlete and a coordination athlete before a wheelchair athlete takes the anchor leg.
The Netherlands finished with two men – van Bergen and Anker – and were well placed in second behind Australia after Jong’s leg. At the final handover, Netherlands were in the lead ahead of Indonesia, who also finished with two men. Anker managed to keep the first place across the finish line to secure the gold medal in 47.73, beating Indonesia by eight hundredths of a second as Australia, with 14-year-old Lexie Brown in the team, won bronze.
Great Britain’s Hannah Cockroft won the women’s 800m T34 final in a dominant fashion, setting a new championship record of 1:49.88. The British Para athletics superstar led the race from start to finish, with a large gap back to her opponents, bagging her third gold medal at New Delhi by a margin of more than 14 seconds. Her teammate Kare Adenegan made it a British one-two as Lan Hanyu of China claimed bronze.
“Anything under 1:50.00 is a good time, I’m super happy with the result, super happy with the gap and happy that it is over (after so many events),” said Cockroft, who has dominated the T34 events since winning her two first world titles 14 years ago.
It was the third World Championships that the 33-year-old from Halifax in West Yorkshire, England, who also won the 100m and 400m T34, has produced a hat trick of world titles. A 19-time world champion, with nine Paralympic titles to her name, Cockroft is unbeaten in Paralympic and World Championships finals since 2011.
After crossing the line to conclude her New Delhi 2025 campaign with a gold medal, however, Cockroft quickly shifted focus towards her partner, Great Britain’s Nathan Maguire, who was racing in the men’s 800m T54 heats and qualified for Sunday’s final.
“I crossed the line, and I was already thinking about his race,” Cockroft said.
“It’s so special to get to be here, I just pretended I was a bit ill after the finish line so I could stay on the side and watch to cheer him up and it’s amazing to watch him compete as well.”
Spain’s Alba Garcia Falagan won the women’s long jump T11 gold medal with a season’s best jump of 4.80 in her fourth attempt, turning a dramatic competition start into success.
“I twisted my ankle five minutes before the event, and we didn’t know if I’d be able to compete,” the 23-year-old said.
“To win gold felt like I was releasing all the tension, I’m grateful to be here and super happy of our achievements and of the team I have.”
It was the first major title for Garcia Falagan, who had claimed bronze at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games as well as in the 100m T11 in New Delhi on Wednesday, having made her international debut at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin, Germany.
France’s Tiffany Logette-Lods claimed the second place with 4.56, Arjola Dedaj of Italy finishing in third place with a jump of 4.41.
A long jump hero with more experience from the top of the podium, Ecuador’s Kiara Rodriguez won the women’s T47 final to claim her fourth consecutive long jump world title. The 22-year-old world record-holder, who had triumphed at Dubai 2019, Paris 2023 and Kobe 2024, won the final with a new Championship Record of 6.29, beating runner-up Petra Luteran of Hungary by 31cm. Denmark’s Bjoerk Noerremark took the bronze with a 5.84.
Colombia’s Levin Moreno Denis and Jose Gregorio Lemos Rivas produced a one-two in the men’s shot put F38 final, where Moreno Denis beat his teammate’s world record as he took the gold medal. The 36-year-old kicked off the competition with a winning throw of 20.38 in his first attempt, adding more than a metre to the mark set by Lemos Rivas in May this year as his teammate, also with a new personal best of 19.70, had to settle for the silver medal. Great Britain’s Michael Jenkins won bronze with a European Record of 18.84.
Iran’s Yasin Khosravi won the men’s shot put F57 final with a world record of 16.60. The 33-year-old added 59cm to his previous mark from 2023 as India’s Soman Rana claimed silver with 14.69.
Great Britain’s Daniel Pembroke claimed a third consecutive title in the men’s javelin F13. The 34-year-old double Paralympic champion, who could go for a third consecutive title at the Los Angeles 2028 Games, pulled off a season’s best throw of 68.51m when he needed it the most, beating Cuban silver medallist Ulicer Aguilera Cruz by more than five metres. Spain’s Hector Cabrera Llacer took bronze.
In the women’s shot put F12 final, Italy’s world record-holder Assunta Legnante made a dominant performance and claimed the victory with 14.44. The 47-year-old from Naples showed why she is the Paralympic champion as she beat javelin throw F13 gold medallist Zhao Yuping of China in second place by 1.77m. Great Britain’s Lydia Church claimed bronze.
In the 12 finals – six on the track, six on the field – of the eighth and penultimate day of action at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Para athletes from Belgium, Canada, Iran, Ukraine, United States and Uzbekistan won gold medals as Neutral Para Athletes Artem Kalashian and Aleksandr Iaremchuk claimed the men’s 100m T35 and 1500m T46 titles respectively.
Despite failing to make it to the top of the podium for a second consecutive day, Brazil still hold onto their lead in the overall medal standings, with 37 medals including 12 golds. China are in second place with nine gold medals, and Poland in third place with eight.
MEDALLISTS
Women’s Shot Put F12 Final
Gold: Assunta Legnante (Italy)
Silver: Zhao Yuping (China)
Bronze: Lydia Church (Great Britain)
Women’s Long Jump T47 Final
Gold: Kiara Rodriguez (Ecuador)
Silver: Petra Luteran (Hungary)
Bronze: Bjoerk Noerremark (Denmark)
Men’s Javelin Throw F54 Final
Gold: Ali Baziyarshoorijeh (Iran)
Silver: Ivan Revenko (NPA)
Bronze: Erfan Bondori Deraznoei (Iran)
Men’s 1500m T20 Final
Gold: Michael Brannigan (United States)
Silver: Toda Natsuki (Japan)
Bronze: Sandro Baessa (Portugal)
Women’s Shot Put F35 Final
Gold: Mariia Pomazan (Ukraine)
Silver: Wang Jun (China)
Bronze: Anna Nicholson (Great Britain)
Men’s Shot Put F57 Final
Gold: Yasin Khosravi (Iran)
Silver: Soman Rana (India)
Bronze: Teijo Koopikka (Finland)
Women’s Club Throw F51 Final
Gold: Zoia Ovsii (Ukraine)
Silver: Ekta Bhyan (India)
Bronze: Ekaterina Potapova (NPA)
Women’s Long Jump T11 Final
Gold: Alba Garcia Falagan (Spain)
Silver: Tiffany Logette-Lods (France)
Bronze: Arjola Dedaj (Italy)
Men’s Shot Put F38 Final
Gold: Levin Moreno Denis (Colombia)
Silver: Jose Gregorio Lemos Rivas (Colombia)
Bronze: Michael Jenkins (Great Britain)
Men’s High Jump T64 Final
Gold: Temurbek Giyazov (Uzbekistan)
Silver: Jonathan Broom-Edwards (Great Britain)
Bronze: Praveen Kumar (India)
Men’s 100m T52 Final
Gold: Anthony Bouchard (Canada)
Silver: Sato Tomoki (Japan)
Bronze: Fabian Blum (Switzerland)
Men’s 100m T35 Final
Gold: Artem Kalashian (NPA)
Silver: David Dzhatiev (NPA)
Bronze: Dmitrii Safronov (NPA)
Men’s 100m T51 Final
Gold: Peter Genyn (Belgium)
Silver: Roger Habsch (Belgium)
Bronze: Edgar Cesareo Navarro (Mexico)
Men’s Javelin Throw F13 Final
Gold: Daniel Pembroke (Great Britain)
Silver: Ulicer Aguilera Cruz (Cuba)
Bronze: Hector Cabrera Llacer (Spain)
Women’s 800m T34 Final
Gold: Hannah Cockroft (Great Britain)
Silver: Kare Adenegan (Great Britain)
Bronze: Lan Hanyu (China)
Men’s 1500m T46 Final
Gold: Aleksandr Iaremchuk (NPA)
Silver: Antoine Parad (France)
Bronze: Pradeep Puwakpitikande (Sri Lanka)
Universal 4x100m Relay Final
Gold: Netherlands (Zara Temmink, Fleur Jong, Stijn van Bergen, Lito Anker)
Silver: Indonesia (Ni Made Arianti Putri, Nanda Mei Sholihah, Saptoyogo Purnomo, Jaenal Aripin)
Bronze: Australia (Nathan Jason, Lexie Brown, Akeesha Snowden, Luke Bailey)
