Borders para athlete Sammi Kinghorn reclaims 100m world title

Sammi Kinghorn has reclaimed her world title in the T53 100m at the World Para Athletics Championships in style.

The athlete, from Melrose, set a new Championship record to take a Gold medal in Paris - becoming the sixth British athlete to win a title at the competition so far.

Kinghorn got off to a good start, competing against Switzerland’s Catherine Debrunner and defending world champion Gao Fang of China, but pulled away over the last 50m to secure a Championship record of 15.93 seconds.

She said: "I wanted to become world champion, and to do it today is an incredible feeling.

"I was really chilled going into it, but I honestly didn’t think I had it in me. I knew I had to focus on my own race. All I could control was myself, so my coach left me with the simple words of ‘fast, fast, fast!’.

"Even when I crossed the line I didn’t know if I had won it, so I was just waiting for my name to come up. When it did, it was such an incredible feeling.”

Kinghorn last held the World Championship title in 2017, when she also won 200m gold as well as 400m bronze in London.

Kinghorn is also the current holder of the silver medal in the 800m event. The World Para Athletics Championships comes to a close on Monday 17 July.

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