Alessandro da Silva, known as “Gigante”, won the gold medal in the discus throw at the Grand Prix of Parathletics in Paris (France), this Friday (10). In addition to reaching the top of the podium, the Brazilian, from the F11 class (visually impaired), broke the world record, which was his own. The new mark reached by Gigante was 46 meters and 24 centimeters. The previous record was 46 meters and 10 centimeters obtained at the 2019 World Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Current two-time world champion and two-time Paralympic champion, Alessandro practically gave his opponents no chances. He broke the world record on the very first launch. After that, he made 45.70m (2nd round), 45.40m (3rd round), 44.36m (4th round), burned his fifth attempt, and closed the race with 45.40m.
The podium was completed by Oney Tapia, from Italy, with 39 meters and 51 centimeters and by the Spaniard Alvaro de Amo Cano with the mark of 38 meters and 33 centimeters. In addition to the title and world record in the discus throw, on Thursday (9) Alessandro had already won the gold medal in the shot put in the F11 class.
In all, Brazil won eight medals at the event in the French capital: five gold, two silver and one bronze. On the last day of competition, the Paralympic champion in the discus throw, Beth Gomes, of the F52 class (wheelchair athletes), also won the race title, with the mark of 17 meters and 01 centimeters. Also on Friday, André Rocha, also in the F52 class, won the bronze medal in the shot put. He shot to 8 meters and 45 centimeters. Rocha had already won the silver medal in the discus throw.
Another Brazilian podium on the last day of the tournament was Luis Felipe Rosin. He took silver in the 200 m in the T64 class (lower limb deficiencies and who compete with prostheses), with a time of 25 seconds and 05 hundredths (best athlete of the season). The other two Brazilian medals were the gold medals of Silvânia Costa in the long jump (class T11 – visually impaired) and Wallace dos Santos in the shot put (class F55 – wheelchair athletes).
