The headline, slightly stuffily, read “heartiest congratulations”. Underneath, an effusive Narendra Modi posted congratulations to his country’s para-athletics team. “A historic performance!”, the Indian prime minister wrote on social media, celebrating a record 22-medal haul for his country at the World Para Athletics Championships in Delhi, which ended on Sunday. “I am proud of each and every member and wish them the very best for their future endeavours,” he said. “Hosting the tournament in Delhi has also been an honour for India.”
This was India’s first time staging the biggest track-and-field event in disability sport, outside the Paralympic Games, and they made a suitable noise about it. After a last-minute decision that confirmed Delhi as hosts last December, the hope was that the championships might expand awareness of para-sport in India and, in the process, perhaps help to wake a sleeping giant. With India 10th in the medal table and stars such as the visually impaired sprinter Simran Sharma breaking out into the public consciousness, it could be argued that mission has been accomplished.
Simran Sharma has become a star in India thanks to her gold and silver medals across the T12 sprint events. Photograph: Avijit Das/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock
The Indian Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports said the championships had shown the country had “entered a space usually reserved for elite and established organisers” while an “elated” Deepa Malik, the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic medal, at the 2016 Games, said it would “create so much awareness and love in the hearts of Indians”. That many of the events took place in front of sparse crowds at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium does not appear to have taken the edge off.
Over the course of the 186 medal events held across nine days on a stadium with a newly installed Olympic specification Mondo track, the Delhi world championships saw 35 world records broken and 104 championship records set. The busting of previous bests is generally par for the course in para-sports as participation, coaching and technology continues to improve with each cycle. However, it has happened without a significant narrowing of the pool of medal-winning countries, with 45 of the competing nations – athletes from 104 countries took part – winning at least one gold and 64 at least one medal, figures comparable to the previous three editions of the event.
Fans salute India’s Preeti Pal’s silver medal in the women’s T35 100m but empty seats were a regular feature throughout the nine days of competitions. Photograph: Ranjith Kumar/IPA Sport/ipa-agency.net/Shutterstock
For Great Britain it was an average championships, albeit one peppered with individual moments worth celebrating. GB finished seventh in the medal table with 25 in total – seven gold, five silver and 13 bronze – down from fourth with 29 medals in 2023 (but significantly up on Kobe in 2024, an event affected by preparations for the Paris Paralympics). Among the athletes to find success were stalwarts Dan Pembroke, who achieved the threepeat in the F13 javelin, and Aled Davies, who won a seventh successive title in the F63 shot put. Naturally, Hannah Cockroft also added more world titles to her unparalleled CV in wheelchair racing, winning three golds in the T34 category.
Particularly good news for Britain came lower down the card, where new names excelled on the world stage. Victoria Levitt was competing at her first ever world championships, in the T44 classification for athletes with an impairment in the lower leg, and claimed gold and silver in the 100m and 200m respectively. “Being world champion is probably the scariest thing I’ve ever heard”, said the 29-year-old who, while not recording 13.22sec in the 100m, works for Tesco in her home town of Mansfield. Wheelchair racer Nathan Maguire, meanwhile, beat the Swiss legend Marcel Hug to finish third in the T54 1500m. There was a brilliant bronze too for Finlay Menzies in the 100m sprint in frame running, a sport that will be making its debut at the Los Angeles Paralympics in 2028.
Katie Jones, head of Paralympic performance at UK Athletics, said the event had been “a positive experience” for Great Britain and a chance for two generations of athletes to learn from each other as they begin the road to LA. “The athletes have all come together, the team spirit has been fantastic and we have come away with 25 medals. We couldn’t have asked for more than that,” she said. “The newbies always bring an enthusiasm, an optimism, a vigour back into the team, so it’s lifted everyone. What’s been really nice is seeing the more experienced athletes putting their arm around the shoulder and giving some advice, because the [new members of the team] didn’t know what to expect. They had not had the opportunity over the past four years to actually be in this environment and get the skills, so our older athletes are sharing that.”
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Victoria Levitt (right) on her way to T44 100m gold – USA’s Annie Carey (left) takes the silver. Photograph: Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters
There were controversies at these championships too. Pakistan boycotted due to heightened tensions in Kashmir. From outside came the news that the International Paralympic Committee had reversed its ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes from taking part under their own flag (“Neutral Paralympic Athletes” came third in the medal table in Delhi). There was an issue over competitor numbers in some events, with Britain’s Fabienne André denied a bronze medal, after a British one-two-three in the women’s T34 400m, because only four participants started the race. Then there was the absence of spectators, with Cockcroft arguing it was “hard to believe” the Indian public was behind the games, when even free events were not full.
Uncertainty and slow progress is a consistent backdrop for disabled athletes. Once again, the location for the next championships in two years is yet to be decided. But while the struggle is long and the gains made often piecemeal, the power of para-sport to change lives and perceptions is very much alive.
As the Indian sprinter Sharma put it, para-athletes “still face challenges, from accessibility to infrastructure”. All of which means that any race, never mind any medal, commonly means more. “It wasn’t just a race”, said Sharma of her T12 100m triumph. “It was the culmination of years of quiet struggle, discipline, and unshakable faith.”
