The 21-year-old from Ballymena, the reigning Paralympic champion in the event, was in total control from start to finish and crossed the line in 1min 58.90sec to defend the world title he won at the last World Championships in 2006 in Assen.

Brad Scott of Australia claimed silver in 2:03.25 while Algeria's Khaled Hanani claimed bronze in 2:08.00.

The victory came just days after McKillop broke the world record in the 1m500m T37 in 4:14.81, although he did not pick up gold winning the race as that event the competition is a non-medal event at these Championships.

McKillop told insideworldparasport: "I'm delighted to have won the gold medal and to do it in a world record time makes it even more special.

"It is a shame that I didn't get a gold medal for my victory in the 1,500 but I'm still so happy to have come away with one here.

"Back in Ireland it is still my birthday [January 27] due to the time difference so I have a wee bit of celebrating to do!"

McKillop also paid tribute to his absent compatriot Jason Smyth, the double Paralympic champion in the 100 and 200m T13, who missed these Championships through injury.



"This is partly for Jason and it is such a shame he couldn't be here," said McKillop.

"He is a winner and we must all work hard to win to keep the spirit of Jason in this team.

"But even without him here, it has been fantastic to be part of the Irish team and to perform at a major event with London 2012 getting closer.

McKillop's world record was one of six to fall in an action-packed day six.

An extremely high-standard men's discus throw F54/55/56 incredibly saw three world records fall to the three medallists.

Leonardo Diaz of Cuba claimed gold with an F56 world record of 43.10 metres, Drazenko Mitrovic of Serbia picked up silver with an F54 world record of 31.35m and Mustafa Yuseinov of Bulgeria secured the bronze with an F55 world record of 39.42m.

In the women's javelin throw F33/34/52/53, Brigit Kober of Germany won the gold medal and the world record with a 23.54m throw.

Lucyna Kornobys of Poland took silver in 14.09m while Algeria's Louadjeda Benoumessai picked up bronze in 16.79m in her disability class.

In the afternoon, Allel Boukhalfa of Algeria claimed the men's 400m T36 first round heat as he qualified for the final tomorrow in 1:01.21 in the T35 disability category.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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