By Tom Degun

Stade de ParillyMay 25 - The Stade de Parilly in Lyon today staged its test event ahead of the 2013 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Athletics Championships, which are due to take place from July 19 until 28.


The event in the French city was organised by Ligue Rhone-Alpes Handisport and featured 80 athletes from five different countries, France, Algeria, China, Ireland and Venezuela.

The competition saw a number of standout performances, most notably from French Paralympic champion Mandy Francois-Elie, who bettered the 100 metres T37 world record with a blistering time of 13.77sec in front of a home crowd.

Shortly after, Ireland's Orla Barry threw further then the world record with a distance of 30.71m in the discus F57 event.

However, in lieu of anti-doping rules at the test event, both performances will not count as official world records.

A delegation from the IPC was in Lyon to observe the test event review the progress of the preparations for the 2013 World Championships and expressed their delight.

"We are very satisfied with the work of the organising committee," said IPC Athletics senior manager Ryan Montgomery.

"The preparations are going well and I am confident that we will see a fantastic World Championship that will build off the success we created at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

"The fact that we saw two world records being broken shows that we can expect great competition in two months' time."

The Championships will welcome 1,300 athletes from over 100 countries as the majority of medal winners from London 2012 look to start their preparations for the next Paralympic Games in Rio in 2016.

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