Marlou van Rhijn of the Netherlands upset French hopes of another gold when she beat home favourite Marie-Amelie Le Fur to the top of the podium in the 100m T44.
The 21-year-old was just 0.06 seconds shy of the world record she set in Berlin last month, clocking 13.02 to take her first of two possible golds in Lyon.
“That was really cool,” said van Rhijn. “I was quite nervous, it’ such a competitive race and I really wanted to win. It was a tough one, because every time I start they start faster. So I have to be confident to get there in the end. Every time that happens it’s such a good feeling.”
Cuba’s Paralympic champion Yunidis Castillo tore through the field in the women’s 200m T46, clocking 24.66 - 0.02 seconds faster than her own championship record - to take her second title in Lyon. In fact it was a repeat of the podium from London 2012 as South Africa’s Anrune Liebenberg tool silver and Alicja Fiodorow of Poland, the bronze.
Terezinha Guilhermina’s bid for a hat trick of individual gold medals at her second consecutive World Championships is still on track as she won the 400m T11 with ease. Silver went to Maria Silva of Angola with Miroslava Sedlackova of the Czech Replubic picking up bronze. Next up for the 34-year-old is the 200m semi-finals on Friday 26 July.
The 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships, featuring over 1,000 athletes from nearly 100 countries, runs through until Sunday 28 July. It is the biggest gathering of international athletes since London 2012 and is being streamed each day live via www.ParalympicSport.TV.
Live results can be found at the Lyon 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships website whilst updates and behind the scenes pictures can be found at twitter.com/IPCAthletics and facebook.com/IPCAthletics. More pictures can be found at flickr.com/ipc-athletics-lyon2013.com.