Ingram earns fourth place and a Canadian record en-route to successful World Para Athletics Championships debut

Story by Athletics Canada

DUBAI – Another day, another new Canadian record was set, this time by 17-year-old Austin Ingram in the men’s 100-metre T13 competition.

Standing in the blocks to start off Day 7 of the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships, Ingram raced to round 1 time of 11.03 seconds to qualify for the final in the afternoon session, lowering his own Canadian record of 11.09 seconds from the WPA Paris Grand Prix in August.

In the final, the OFSAA gold medalist from last May improved his time from the qualifying heats, dipping under 11-seconds with a time of 10.99 to finish in fourth place in his first World Championships.

Josh Cassidy made his return to the Dubai Club after competing in the men’s 1500-metre T54 competition on Monday, this time for the men’s 5,000-metre T54 heats, where he finished with a time of 10:54.09.

Brent Lakatos was scheduled to compete in this competition as well, but pulled out of the race with “health issues which have affected his stamina,” stated team lead Simon Nathan. “Brent and his support team have made this decision in order to not affect his preparations for Tokyo.

Amanda Rummery concluded her first World Para Athletics Championships in the women’s 200-metre T47 heats, where she stopped the clock at 28.14 for fifth place in heat one.

The duo of Diane Roy and Jessica Frotten concluded Canada’s on the track, both placing in the top 8 in the women’s 5,000-metre T54 final. Roy was the first Canadian over the finish line with a time of 12:16.25, followed closely by Frotten with a time of 12:17.43 for fifth and seventh place, respectively.

Kevin Strybosch concluded the day on the field in the men’s discus F37 final, taking his third throw of 41.89 metres for a tenth place finish.

We have arrived at the penultimate day of the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships, with many more standout performances anticipated to come. Day 8 will see Martha Gustafson start the day off for Canada in the women’s discus T53 final, followed by the Universal 4×100-meter relay, with Austin Ingram, Marissa Papaconstantinou, Zachary Gingras, and Jessica Frotten representing Canada.

 Lee Leclerc and Austin Smeenk will race in the men’s 800-metre T34 round one heats to start the afternoon session before two-time Pan American gold medalist and Canadian record-holder (14:23.24), Guillaume Ouellet toes the line for the men’s 5,000-metre T13 final.

The World Para Athletics Championships are the largest Para sport event to be held before the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and run from November 7 to 15 in Dubai. More than 1,400 athletes from almost 120 nations are competing. 

Viewers will be able to follow the action via the free CBC Gem streaming service, cbcsports.ca, the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices, and CPC Facebook page, as well as the Radio-Canada Sports app and radio-canada.ca/sports.

For the broadcast schedule, please visit Paralympic.ca/Paralympic-Super-Series.