Colombia\u2019s Karen Tatiana Palomeque Moreno retained her women\u2019s 200m T38 world title with a world record at the New Delhi 2025 World Para Athletics Championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 31-year-old from Medellin, who won two gold medals and a bronze at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, had been dethroned by her teammate Angie Nicoll Mejia Morales in Monday’s narrow 100m T38 final, but refused to let another title slip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With a good start, Palomeque Moreno and her 16-year-old compatriot broke clear of the field, but this time Palomeque Moreno held her off to claim her third consecutive 200m crown in 24.98, knocking nine hundredths off her own world record set in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want to thank my mother, sister, brother, auntie and uncle. It is much thanks to their support that I am here. I should obviously also thank my husband, who is a motivation for me to be here, making my dreams come true,\u201d Palomeque Moreno said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want to thank my coaches for their strength and for helping me through such a beautiful process that we have had, and that has resulted in such a great result.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was the sixth world title for Palomeque Moreno, who now has a New Delhi medal in every colour, having claimed bronze in the long jump T38 on Wednesday. Luca Ekler of Hungary, who topped the long jump podium ahead of the two Colombians, took bronze in 25.96.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sixth evening of action at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium was delayed because of heavy rainfall, with some events postponed to the remaining days. The weather was however not anything that could stop Switzerland\u2019s Catherine Debrunner, who won the women\u2019s 100m T53 final to claim her fourth gold medal in New Delhi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt has been a crazy day today, with plenty of thunderstorm and rain, so everything was postponed, and we\u2019ve been really insecure about what was going to happen. Suddenly they said that we could go into the call room, and it was kind of chaotic,\u201d Debrunner said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the track was race-ready again, Debrunner set off with a lightning start and soon had a chair\u2019s length back to Turkiye\u2019s Hamide Dogangun in second place. She took the title in a new championship record of 15.50 \u2013 almost half a second faster than Dogangun\u2019s 15.96 \u2013 as Zhou Hongzhuan of China claimed bronze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am really happy that I could deal with the circumstances. To take my first World Championships title in the 100m is a very special one to me,\u201d Debrunner said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In her Paris 2024 medal haul, Debrunner had won gold medals in the 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m and the marathon, and a silver in the 100m. In New Delhi, she had previously triumphed in the 800m, 1500m and 5000m and will aim for a clean sweep of gold medals in Friday’s 400m final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want to say thanks to everyone who supports me in Switzerland; my family, my friends, my whole support team in sports,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI could never have done it without you guys and I\u2019m so proud of what we have achieved in the past years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran\u2019s Saeid Afrooz improved his own world record in the men\u2019s javelin F34 final. The world and Paralympic champion made no mistake in the first event of the day. With a winning throw of 41.52 in his fifth attempt, he extended his mark from Paris 2024 by 36cm. Diego Fernando Meneses Medina of Colombia pulled off his best throw in his sixth and last attempt, claiming the silver medal with an American Record of 39.19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n