Day two at the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS) World Games saw young athletes come to the fore in Vila Real de Santo Antonio.

Swimming

Hong Kong’s Cheuk Yan Ng, who is just 12 years old, enjoyed a fantastic morning in the pool on Sunday.

Cheuk, an S6 swimmer, collected an impressive three golds and one silver in her only competition day in Portugal. Her wins came in the women’s 50m and 100m breaststroke and 100m butterfly. Cheuk reached her fourth podium in the 50m freestyle.

Spain’s Jian Candial Escanilla, 15, was another athlete to enjoy a productive morning, adding four golds to bring his total to six overall in the men’s 50m and 400m freestyle S9, 100m breaststroke SB9 and 100m butterfly S9.

Latvia’s Jurijs Semjonovs picked up his third gold of the IWAS World Games 2022 in the men’s 50m freestyle S8.

And Estonian Paralympian Matz Topkin (580 points) triumphed in the men’s 50m freestyle S3-7.

Some events at the IWAS World Games are mixed class, meaning that results are decided on a points system.

Powerlifting

The second and final day of powerlifting delivered some incredibly tense competition.

Simone Fragoso walked out onto the platform for Portugal in the women’s up to 41kg, but Ecuador’s Kerly Lascano was there to steal her home thunder.

Fragoso managed two good lifts and a best of 42kg, but Lascano only needed one successful first attempt on 78kg to take the gold. The Portuguese settled for silver.

Algeria’s Paralympic bronze medallist and African champion, Hoccine Bettir (180kg), showed his expertise in the men’s up to 65kg with three good lifts to take victory.

Kazakhstan’s Alexandr Daskov took silver with 140kg and Chinese Taipei’s Ming-Tai Kao (107kg) was third.

In the men’s over 107kg Georgia’s Akaki Jintcharadze delivered three good lifts to beat London 2012 and Rio 2016 Paralympian Ahmad Khamis Albaloushi to gold. His best and final effort of 231kg was 20kg more than Albaloushi could manage after failing an 220kg attempt.

Another Georgian joined Jintcharadze on the podium. Giorgi Latsabidze secured bronze with a first round lift of 180kg.

Athletics

Algeria’s Abdelkrim Krai, the silver medallist from Tokyo 2020, dominated in the men’s 1,500m T35-48/46.

Krai is a T38 athlete and ran his own race on Sunday to finish top of the leaderboard with 960 points. His teammate Samir Nouioua was the fastest T46 athlete on the day, claiming silver with 744 points. Ireland’s Aryell Sheedy (570 points) secured bronze as the quickest of three T37 runners.

Nassima Saifi continued the Algerian gold rush in the women’s discus F57. Saifi, also a silver medallist, threw 3cm clear of her rival and compatriot Safia Djelal to take the win. South Africa’s Madeline Hoffmann (22.48m) took bronze.

Three-time Paralympic champion and the bronze medallist from Tokyo 2020, Latvia’s Aigars Apinis, reached the top of his latest IWAS World Games podium in the men’s discus F52/53 with a 19.53m effort.

Two Czech throwers joined him – Jaroslav Broz (15.56m) with silver and Ales Kisy (14.35m) with bronze.

Wheelchair slalom

Wheelchair slalom used to be featured at the Paralympics and on Sunday it was fittingly brought back as a demonstration event at the IWAS World Games 2022.

The sport is run in rounds which begins with athletes in the same classification competing against each other. The quickest 12 athletes then advance to the next stage and competitors are gradually whittled down to a final and bronze medal race.

Sunday’s competition featured athletes from both Portugal and Spain.

Spain’s Nerea Navarro Domenech was the victor followed by teammate Virginia Lozano Caspuenas. Lucinda Moreno represented hosts Portugal taking bronze to preserve their national pride in wheelchair slalom.

About the IWAS World Games

Powerlifting was broadcast live at the IWAS Facebook page, alongside results here.

Swimming results are available after the end of competition each day here.

Athletics results are published here.

Pictures are available for editorial and social media use here.

Designed to give aspiring Paralympians and emerging athletes their first taste of international competition, the Games have helped produce many of the world’s big name stars.

It is the formula of established athletes competing against the next generation that makes the IWAS World Games so unique and helped it to develop into one of the world’s largest sporting events for athletes with physical impairments.