Woods in personal best form in Nottwil

Wheelchair racer Melanie Woods continued her good form at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Switzerland with two more personal bests on day two.

Woods (Red Star, Rodger Harkins) opened the three-day meeting on Thursday with a superb 1:42.48 in the T54 800m event – improving her time of 1:43.85 from the 2024 Paris Paralympics.

The two-time bronze medallist from last year’s World Championships in India maintained her momentum in warm and sunny conditions in Nottwil in Friday’s 400m, finishing third in her race in 52.83 – beating the 53.42 she set at the same event 12 months ago.

The 31-year-old finished behind American great Tatyana McFadden (50.63) and world and Paralympic champion Lea Bayekula of Belgium (51.99) with a strong end to the race seeing her hold off the challenge of Paris bronze medallist Zhou Zhaoquin of China.

Woods then went on to take 0.04 seconds off her 5000m PB, which was also set at last year’s meeting, when she finished fourth in 11:17.94 with Catherine Debrunner of Switzerland taking victory ahead of McFadden and Zhou.

She will complete her programme on Saturday with the 100m and the 1500m – the event where she will represent Team Scotland at this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

There was also a 400m personal best for Eden Rainbow-Cooper (Red Velvet Racing Team, Arno Mul), who is also Commonwealth Games-bound with Team England.

The Boston Marathon winner dominated her heat to win in 54.63 – well clear of fellow Britons Nancy Jubb and Ellis Kottas for a big improvement on her previous best of 56.05 from 2024.

Elsewhere, Kare Adenegan (Coventry, Arno Mul) put in a season’s best of 61.89 in the T34 400m for third place overall while Fabienne Andre (Sutton & District, Christine Parsloe) was fifth after crossing the line in 66.21.

And Karim Chan (Charnwood, Aston Moore) improved his T38 100m personal best from 11.51 to 11.40 in the heats of his event with the finals scheduled for Saturday.