29 September,2025 09:44 AM IST | Mumbai | Jaspreet Singh
Brazil’s Ricardo de Mendonca (left) and Christian Da Costa celebrate winning the gold and silver medal respectively in the 100m T37 event at the World C’ships in New Delhi on Sunday. Pic/Getty Images
After Brazilian para sprint legend Petrucio Ferreira dos Santos's gold on the opening day of the World Para Athletics Championships here, it was the turn of his compatriot Ricardo Gomes de Mendonca on Sunday to set the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium track on fire, while hosts India failed to add to the three medals they had won on Day One.
Mendonca defended his men's 100m T37 title by clocking 11.16sec, which is a new championship record. It extended his reign to three successive world championship titles, adding to his gold at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
It was a one-two finish for Brazil as Christian Gabriel Luiz Da Costa won the silver medal with a timing of 11.23sec. Indonesia's Saptoyogo Purnomo won the bronze (11.29sec).
Mendonca's gold followed Ferreira's astonishing fifth straight world title in the men's 100m T47 event, which he clinched on Monday. The fastest Paralympian on earth won the gold medal clocking 10.66sec. He has been undefeated in the event in the last 12 years, which includes gold medals at the Rio, Tokyo and Paris Paralympics.
"The competitiveness and the pressure I put on my body, defending my titles, is always increasing," he said in his native language, translated by the Paralympic website.
Brazil led the medals tally at the end of day two with three gold, five silver and two bronze medals.
After winning three medals on the opening day, including a gold by high-jumper (T63) Shailesh Kumar, it was a dull second day for the hosts, as none of the three finals featuring Indians yielded a medal.
The men's javelin throw (F57) event saw Parveen Kumar and Hem Chandra finish eighth and 10th respectively. Kumar's season best throw of 41.92m was not good enough, while Hem Chandra's personal best of 41.17m was the least distance achieved among the 10 finalists. The men's long jump T47 also saw two Indians, Vikas and Ajay Singh, competing. Vikas finished sixth (6.96m) while Ajay finished 10th (6.31m). Rakeshbhai Bhatt and Priyansh Trivedi started in the eight-man 100m T37 final, and finished seventh and eighth with timings of 11.88sec and 12.18sec respectively.
