Maria Lyle (coach: Jamie Bowie; club: Team East Lothian) and Thomas Young (Joe McDonnell; Charnwood) claimed 100m victories on day one of the World Para Athletics Grand Prix finals in Paris.

Double European champion Young stormed to victory in the T37/38 100m final with a blistering 11.35s (0.1) time. As the youngest in the field at only 19-years-old, Young now turn his sights to the World Para Championships in Dubai in November.

T35 world leader Lyle followed suit, also as the youngest in the field, clocking 14.25s (-0.1) in the T35/36 100m to outrun the field by a marginal 1.15 seconds. Lyle will see if she can take double wins in the sprinting events as she faces the 200m tomorrow.

At her first international athletics event, Fabienne Andre (Jenny Archer; Weir Archer Academy) continued the British winning streak with her first-place finish in the women’s T33/34 wheelchair 100m in 20.40s. Although this is Andre’s first year racing on the track, she has won three-gold medals as a swimmer at the Cerebral Palsy World Games last year and is determined to make a name for herself as an athlete. Andre was followed by British teammates Olivia Gallagher (Jenny Archer; Weir Archer Academy) and Natasha Settelten (Jenny Archer; Weir Archer Academy) in third and fourth place.

The T37/38 400m saw Kadeena Cox (Matt Cullen; Sale Harriers Manchester) set the fastest time in her field with a season’s best 62.97s – close to her 2017 World Championships winning time of 62.87s, which is when she last ran the event. Teammate Ali Smith (Chris Zah; Guildford & Godalming) finished in fifth, clocking 67.26s.

Zac Shaw (Leon Baptiste; Cleethorpes) managed a third place finish in the T11/12 100m final in 11.15s (no wind), just 0.05 seconds off his lifetime best which he ran at the last WPA Grand Prix in Bydgoszcz. After qualifying first in his heat, Shaw missed out on the top spot in the final as the world leader, Salum Ageze Kashafali of Norway, who crossed the line in a winning time of 10.60s.

Mo Jomni (Jenny Archer; Weir Archer Academy) also took third in the men’s T51/52/53 wheelchair 100m in 16.49s (-0.8) behind the French duo Pierre Fairbank and Nicholas Brignone.

Further success came in the longer distances, with Stephen Morris (James Thie; Cardiff) taking third place in the T20 1500m with a season’s best 3:59.82, just behind world leader Michael Brannigan (USA) and second-place Daiki Akai (JPN).

James Arnott (Ryan Freckleton; City of Plymouth) came home seventh in the T46 100m final, stopping the clock in 11.59s (0.5); the winner Roderick Robert-Towsend (USA) crossed the line half a second ahead.

The men’s T33/34 100m wheelchair race saw Jamie Edwards (Jenny Archer; Weir Archer Academy), Harri Jenkins (DSW Para Academy) and Shaun White (Christine Parsloe; Sutton & District) qualify to the final, finishing consecutively from fifth to seventh place, with Edwards’ 17.30s (0.1) the best of the showings.

In the men’s T38 400m, Dylan Harris (Dwayne Stoddart; Reading AC) clocked 57.00s, 0.03 seconds off his personal best, and Shaun Burrows (Joseph McDonnell; Charnwood) finished third in his race with 56.10s.

Tomorrow will see Libby Clegg (Joseph McDonnell; Charnwood) return to the world stage in the T11 200m with her guide Tom Somers (Benke Blomkvist; Newham & Essex Beagles), and Gemma Prescott (Mike Wood; Challenge Disability Sports Club) will take on the world record holder, Maroua Ibrahmi (TUN), in the F32 Club Throw.