Key Points

Zileide Cassiano Da Silva and Fatma Damla Altin, who finished behind the Polish athlete at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, found their pace, rhythm, and flight to leap 5.88m and 5.72m, securing gold and silver.

The legend Kucharczyk-Urbanska, who was returning to the World Para Athletics Championships after missing 2024, had a best of 5.55m.

It was only the third defeat in a global competition for Karolina Kucharczyk-Urbanska in 10 global competitions since making her debut in 2011. She has won gold in four World Championships and three Paralympic Games. Although she has breached the 6m often, an ankle injury has meant she had to settle for a season's best jump for bronze.

Kucharczyk-Urbanska said the bronze felt like gold because she is dealing with an injured ankle. She also said she liked how she fought till the end to be on the podium despite competing in unfamiliar heat and humidity. "I had a lot of fun today," she said. I fought hard to get on the podium," she said.

Interestingly, Mikela Ristoski (Croatia), the athlete who had beaten the Polish jumper both at the World Para Athletics Championships in Christchurch in 2011 and the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 - was engaged with Kucharczyk-Urbanska in the fight for bronze but was unable to edge her renowned rival off the podium.

From the shot put circle, the Netherlands' Lara Baars threw the iron ball over 9.77m to set a new World Record in the women's F40 class. The only competitor to surpass the 9m mark, the 28-year-old broke her own World Record twice, making it the 30th world record in New Delhi 2025.

Meanwhile, on Sunday morning, the Jury of Appeal reversed an earlier decision and reinstated four marks of Brazilian Paulino dos Santos Thiago in the men's Shot Put F57 final, including a best of 14.82m that gave him the silver medal and relegated India's Soman Rana to bronze and Finland's Teijo Koppikka out of the podium.

While India's count of medals remained at 18, it now has six medals of each colour and is placed seventh on the table. India's hopes of rising higher rest on sprinter Simran Sharma's shoulders as she competes in the women's 200m T12 final, where she will go up against Clara Barros Da Silva (Brazil) and Venezuela's Alejandra Paola Perez Lopez.

- IANS