Niko Kappel once again missed the longed-for gold medal at the Para World Championships in track and field. The short shot putter had to settle for silver in Paris.
With 14.49 meters he was defeated by Uzbek Bobirjon Omonov on Wednesday (07/12/2023), who brought it to 14.73 meters. The 28-year-old Kappel has been waiting for a big title for six years now. Third was the American Hagan Landry (13.48).
After winning the Paralympics in 2016 and the World Championship title in 2017, the man from Stuttgart won silver three times and bronze twice. His training partner Yannis Fischer, who was seven years his junior, surprisingly won the title in the shot put of the smaller dwarfs on Tuesday.
“It’s tough”
“Great – with 14.49 meters silver. That’s tough. Respect for the colleagues, he did well”said Kappel afterwards: “It would have been a bit more, but I can still be satisfied. It’s just a shame that it wasn’t enough for gold.” And with a view to the Paralympics next year: “There’s still room for improvement.”
Bronze for Streng and Nicoleitzik
Sprinter Felix Streng won bronze in the 100 meters in the T64 class in the evening. The man from the Wetzlar sprint team, who celebrated gold at the Paralympics in Tokyo in 2021, had to admit defeat to Italy’s Maxcel Amo Manu (10.71) and Sherman Guity from Costa Rica (10.79) in 10.85 seconds. Defending champion Johannes Floors (Leverkusen) finished fourth and just missed out on a medal.
Bronze also went to Germany in the women’s sprint: Nicole Nicoleitzik (Püttlingen) secured her first medal at a world championships in the final of the T36 class over 100 meters. Gold went to China’s defending champion Shi Yiting, who set a world championship best time of 13.66 seconds. Danielle Aitchison from New Zealand won silver.
Walser with personal best
In two other finals, the German athletes remained without a medal. In the long jump (T12), Andreas Walser finished fifth with a personal best of 6.82 meters, javelin thrower Lise Petersen finished eighth in the F46 class with 33.17 meters.
The Para Athletics World Championships (until July 17) is a kind of dress rehearsal for next year’s Paralympics (August 28 to September 8, 2024), which will also take place in the French capital. At the previous World Championships in Dubai in 2019, the German team had won eleven precious metals in ninth place (7x gold, 2x silver, 2x bronze).