16 March 2016

On day two of the Sharjah International Open Meeting in Dubai, Britain’s para-athletes continued their start to the 2016 season.

Meggan Dawson-Farrell (coach: Ian Mirfin) took over four seconds off her previous T54 800m time recording 1:56.99 for fourth position. It was the Scottish athlete’s second career best of the meeting and she followed this up later in the day with a 33.15 clocking in the 200m.

In the F20 shot put, IPC Athletics World Championships fourth placer Sabrina Fortune (Ian Robinson) threw 12.02m. Her furthest throw came in the last round and this guaranteed a competition win for the Welsh athlete.

Liverpool’s Erin McBride (Robert Roberts) posted a time of 27.02, her best time over (T13) 200m since June 2014. She was second in the competition behind Morocco’s Sanae Benhama.

After his PB in the shot put on day one, Kyron Duke (Anthony Hughes) returned to the field on day two in the mixed F40-46 javelin competition. The 2015 world bronze medallist in the discipline threw a season best to lead the F41 category. In the men’s F37 shot, Joshua Bain (Paul Welch) managed an effort of 10.64m.

Carly Tait (Rick Hoskins) was back in personal best form in the T34 800m taking a considerable amount off her 800m best, over six seconds in 2:26.62. The 200m followed later in the programme with the Stockport athlete clocking 35.82.  

Nathaniel Williams had a duo of events on day two of competition crossing the line in 32:00 in the T34 200m and 2:02.14 in the 800m. Andrew Small (Hoskins) competed in the same events in the T33 classification, recording 35.33 and 2:31.82 respectively. In the T52 800m Nicholas Smith finished in 2:42.97 on the Dubai track.

The para-athletes will now move onto the IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Dubai which starts on Thursday 17 March and runs until Sunday 20 March in Fazaa.

Full results from day two can be found on the Team Thomas website: http://www.team-thomas.org/