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By Ian Gordon
Aled Davies won the 10th world title of his glittering para career after claiming his sixth successive F63 shot put gold in Kobe.
The Cardiff-based thrower brought the curtain down on a hugely-successful championships for the British team in Japan and can now set his sights on more glory at the Paralympics in Paris.
Davies – who turned 33 the day prior to Saturday’s final – produced a super series of throws to win by almost a metre from Iran’s Faisal Sorour.
“I love competing, and over the last two years with injury, I haven’t been able to do what I have wanted to do,” said Davies.
“I have only been back throwing pain free for about five weeks, so I knew I was throwing myself in the deep end here with my class being stronger than ever. I just love trying to throw as far as possible.
“I just need two months of work. Then I’ll be ready to go after that world record. Today, we got the job done, perhaps it was pretty ugly, but it is another world title which I am delighted with.
Signing off from Kobe with two more medals @AledDavies2012 claimed world title number 10 while @nathanmaguire2 earned his first world medal
Read how it all unfolded on Day 9 ⤵️#ParaAthletics | @kobe2022wpac
— British Athletics (@BritAthletics) May 25, 2024
“There are so many things I am going to take away which I am going to apply in Paris. I am looking forward to coming back and throwing further than ever.
“There is always going to be pressure. I’m a six-time world champion in this event and everyone wants to beat me. I wasn’t going to sit at home and let my world title go to someone else.
“Every title feels the same to me. It is crazy to think I have 10 world titles, and six consecutive shot put titles. No one has ever done that in the field. It is surreal. The main one this year is that Paralympic Games, so this sets me up quite nicely.”
Davies got off to a solid start with a 15.50m effort in round one, leading by a significant margin in the early stages of the competition. A foul in round two was followed by his furthest attempt of them all, going out to 15.60m much to his delight.
There was no further improvement but two more plus 15 metre marks in the series – 15.16m and 15.54m – would ultimately see him seal a sixth consecutive shot put title with his first coming in Lyon back in 2013.
It was a third gold won by a Welsh para ace in Kobe following Sabrina Fortune and Hollie Arnold. Harrison Walsh also took bronze.
The Great Britain and Northern Ireland medal tally:
Gold (7): Hollie Arnold [F46 Javelin], Jonathan Broom-Edwards [T64 High Jump], Hannah Cockroft [T34 100m and 800m], Aled Davies [F63 Shot Put], Sabrina Fortune [F20 Shot Put], Dan Pembroke [F13 Javelin]
Silver (2): Thomas Young [T38 100m], Universal 4x100m Relay [Zac Shaw, Kevin Santos, Ali Smith and Hannah Cockroft]
Bronze (3): Nathan Maguire [T54 800m], Zac Shaw [T12 100m], Harrison Walsh [F64 Discus]
