27th February 2019
BLAKE AND BRAMALL AMONG THOSE TRIUMPHANT AT DUBAI GP
The World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Dubai was brought to a close on Wednesday with a set of significant performances on the final day.
After victory in the shot put on day one, Vanessa Wallace (Alison O’Riordan) returned to the field in F33/34 javelin action, throwing a huge personal best of 12.82 metres.
The javelin is an event she has competed in sporadically over the last couple of years, but she made a significant improvement in her first competition of 2019. In fact, she achieved two marks over her previous lifetime best of 12.28 metres, her other effort, 12.48 metres, coming in round one.
In the mixed event, she finished fourth on raza points but was the second F34 athlete behind Germany’s Frances Hermann who threw 16.64 metres.
Reigning Paralympic champion Paul Blake (Rob Ellchuk) was back with a bang over the 400m, stopping the clock at 55.86, on his first outing over the distance since 2017. He blew away the rest of the field to win by over four seconds, continuing his strong start to the year after racing over 800m – and setting a time of 2:10.71 – earlier this week.
Over in the field, Taz Nicholls (Alison O’Riordan) claimed victory in the mixed F11/44/64 Discus with the F44 athlete throwing out a best of 44.43 metres
On Tuesday, there were only two Brits in action, and it was Dan Bramall (Peter Wyman) who won the T33 400m in 1:01.57, ahead of compatriot Andrew Small (Rick Hoskins) in second place, the Stockport athlete clocking 1:02.67.
Full results can be found on the Team Thomas website.