World Para Athletics Championships: Hannah Cockroft still 'hungry' for success

Cockroft has improved her own 100m and 800m world records already this year

British wheelchair racer Hannah Cockroft says she is still hungry for success ahead of the World Para Athletics Championships which start on Saturday in Paris.

The 12-time world champion will be defending her T34 100m and 800m titles in France.

"I love winning and going out and testing myself - and I believe I can still go faster," she told BBC Sport.

"I'm 30 now and people ask me when am I going to retire. But I am not done."

She added: "I'm still hungry and have so much to give to this sport. I still feel like I have lots to learn and change.

"This is my sixth World Championships but I still feel the pressure to perform when it comes to major championships.

"This event is also a really big milestone heading towards next year to see who is coming through, who is developing well and who is pushing quickly."

Paralympic qualification on offer

The biggest Para-sport competition since the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics will feature 1,330 athletes from 107 countries competing in 171 events and is a key marker ahead of next year's Paris Games.

At a pre-event media conference in the French capital, Paul Fitzgerald, the head of World Para Athletics, said the stage was set for athletes to "show pure athleticism on the track and in the field" and start to set the narrative for next year's Games.

The last World Championships took place in Dubai in November 2019 with GB finishing third in the medal table behind China and Brazil with 28 medals, including 13 golds.

As well as a focus on performances and medals over the 10 days of competition, qualification places for Paris are at stake with the top four athletes in each event across the programme securing a slot for their country.

Although the competition starts on Saturday, with some preliminary rounds in the seated throwing events followed by the opening ceremony, the main competition does not start until Sunday.

The last Worlds in Dubai in 2019 saw disappointing crowds and, with the Tokyo Paralympics held behind closed doors, Cockroft believes next year's Paralympics has the potential to change the sport and this week's event is an important step on the way.

"I hope we get some new faces coming along to watch what we do over the next week or so, but the main hope is that Paris will be massive - I would like it to be bigger than 2012," she said.

"We are 11 years on now and, as ground-breaking as London was, the Paralympic Games has moved on with so many new athletes and sports and we need next year's Games to be big to show we are still there.

"Rio was a brilliant Games but it was a struggle and there weren't massive crowds and Tokyo was like nothing we had seen before, so we need to come back from that and for people to watch what we do and to be inspired to take up sport."

Davies has been one of Britain's most consistent performers over the years

Cockroft is part of a 43-strong British team for the Championships which also includes fellow Tokyo gold medallists Jonathan Broom-Edwards, Aled Sion Davies, Sophie Hahn, Owen Miller, Dan Pembroke and Thomas Young.

Welsh shot putter Davies, whose unbeaten record in the event started at the 2013 Worlds in Lyon - the last time France hosted a major Para-sport event - but he has been struggling with inflammation in the joint in his pubic bones (osteitis pubis).

"It has been a rocky road to get here but I am pain-free and things seems to be falling into place at the right time," said the 32-year-old.

"The injury disrupted my winter training and also caused a burning sensation which impacted my sleep. It's only in the last couple of weeks that I have felt good again and I am happy to do what I love doing.

"My experience is what gives me the edge at the moment. I don't really know what shape I am in but what I do know is how to compete and I know how to deliver when it matters so this is where all of that experience works in my favour.

"In Tokyo, when the heavens opened and conditions were horrendous, I still held it together and in the last Worlds, I wasn't in the right shape but still managed to dig deep and win."

International stars aim to shine

The event will also feature some leading overseas stars including Swiss wheelchair racers Marcel Hug and Catherine Debrunner, who will be aiming to continue their 2023 successes.

Hug won four golds in Tokyo in the T54 events and this year won the London Marathon and set new world records in the 800m, 1500m and 5,000m, while Debrunner, who was third in the women's race in London in April, has set four world records this year in her T53 class.

German blade jumper Markus Rehm will be aiming for his sixth consecutive world long jump title after improving his own T64 long jump record to 8.64m in May - a distance that would have won gold at every Olympics since Barcelona in 1992.

Visually-impaired sprinter Salum Ageze Kashafali, who competes in the T13 category, will be aiming to enhance his reputation as the fastest Paralympian in the world having set a 100m time of 10.37 seconds last month.

Kashafali was born in Congo but escaped with his family and spent time in a refugee camp before settling in Norway, the country he now represents.

And New Zealand's Lisa Adams, the younger sister of double Olympic shot put champion Valerie Adams, will be defending her F37 shot put title. Lisa, who won gold in Tokyo, is now coached by Valerie.

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