At least 120 journalists from 13 countries reported on the Championships. The countries included Brazil, Egypt, Finland, Switzerland, Algeria, Australia, Colombia and the United Kingdom.[8]
The opening ceremony was held at Cathedral Square on Friday January 21 as a free event.[10] Over 1000 athletes paraded through the streets of Christchurch. At Cathedral Square, the athletes were greeted by a Pōwhiri, a Māori welcoming ceremony. The New Zealand flag was raised and the national anthem performed. The Championships were Officially opened by the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Rt Hon. John Key.[6][11]
Classification
F = field athletes
T = track athletes
P = pentathlon
11–13 – visually impaired, 11 and 12 compete with a sighted guide
Where there are more than one classification in one event, (for example discus throw F54/55/56), a percentage system is used to determine who's the winner.
Schedule
[12][13][14] The 1st and 2nd placed athletes in any individual medal event on the London 2012 Paralympic Games Programme, qualify the NPC for one (1) qualification slot (per placing) for the London 2012 Paralympic Games.[15]
There were seven world records: Brazil's Terezinha Guilhermina in the women's 200m T11 with a time of 24.74, China's Yuxi Ma (F37) in the men's long jump F37/38 with a length of 6.07m, France's Arnaud Assoumani in the men's long jump F46 twice, first with a length of 7.36m, then with 7.58m, Algeria's Karim Bettina (F32) in the men's shot put F32/33 final with a length of 10.89m and in the same event Algeria's Kamel Kardjena (F33) with 12.24m, France's Thierry Cibone in the men's shot put F34 with a length of 11.53m, China's Liangmin Zhang (classification F11) with a world record throw in the women's discus throw F12 (included both F11 and F12) with 40.42, which gave her a silver medal, while Croatia's Marija Iveković (F12) took the gold medal.[20]
Eight World records: Mexico's Angeles Ortiz Hernandes (F58) in the women's shot put F57/58 final with the length of 11.21m, Poland's Pawel Piotrowski (F36) in the men's shot put F35/36 with a throw of 13.77m, Australia's Kelly Cartwright set a world record and took Australia's first gold medal in the women's long jump F42 with a length of 4.19m, China's Mingjie Gao in the men's javelin T44 final with 59.82m, Poland's Tomasz Blatkiewicz (F37) in the men's discus F37/38 with a length of 53.00m after Ukraine's Mykola Zhabnyak (F37) had broken it first with 52.48m, Egypt's Mostafa Fathalla Mohammed in the men's 100m T37 heat with a time of 11.64 sec, and two records in the women's shot put F32/33/34: Germany's Brigit Kober (classification F34) with a length of 9.30m, and Greece's Maria Stamatoula (F32) with 6.60m.[21]
Brazil's Yohansson Nascimento (T45) set a world record for classification T45 in the men's 200m race T46 (included T45 and T46 classified athletes) with a time of 22.35 and won the silver medal while Antonis Aresti (T46) of Cyprus did not set a record for T46, but won the gold medal with a time of 22.25.
In the 100m T44 men final, America's Jerome Singleton and South Africa's Oscar Pistorius battled it out with Singleton securing gold, just 0.002 ahead of Pistorius.[24] Both Singleton and Pistorius were timed in 11.34.[25]
In the 1500m T37 men, Ireland's Michael McKillop won and set a world record with a time of 4:14.81, but did not receive a medal, because only two athletes competed, and there must be a minimum of three competitors.[26]
There were seven world records: Thierry Cibone of France, in the men's F33/34 javelin throw with a throw of 35.91m, Egypt's Ia Abdelwareth in the men's F37/38 shot put with a throw of 15.58m, Latvia's Aigars Apinis in the men's F51/52/53 discus throw with a throw of 20.88m, China's team (Ting Zhang, Lisha Huang, Wenjun Liu, Hongzhuan Zhou) in the women's 4X400m relay T53/54 with a time of 3:36.11, Tunisia's Hania Aidi in the women's javelin throw F54/55/56, with a throw of 17.27m, both Ukraine's Mariia Pomazan (F35), with a throw of 10.61m, and China's Qing Wu (F36), with a throw of 9.66m, in the women's F35/36 shot put.[27]
America's Tatyana McFadden took her 4th gold at the championship (200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m T54).[29]
World records: Mariia Pomazan of Ukraine, in the women's discus F35/36 with a throw of 28.73m (1073pts) and Tunisia's Mohamed Farhat Chida in the men's 400m T38 with a time of 49.33sec.[29]
Iran's Seyed Erfan Hosseini Liravi set a world record in the men's javelin F12/13 with a throw of 61.48m, though the gold medal was won by China's Pengkai Zhu with 61.90. Liravi is classified F13 and Zhu is classified F12, and the world record was for F13 classified athletes.[29] (F12: may recognise the shape of a hand, visual acuity of 2/60, and/or visual field of less than 5 degrees. F13: visual acuity ranges from 2/60 to 6/60, and/or visual field over 5 degrees and less than 20 degrees.)
Great Britain's David Weir and Shelly Woods, on January 29, pulled out of the marathon for safety reasons, as the roads around the circuit would not be closed to traffic.[30]