Just days after carrying the Queen's Baton for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this year atop Mount Snowdon, the world and Paralympic discus champion threw a remarkable 48.69 metres to smash Fanie Lombaard of South Africa's 12-year-old world record by 83 centimetres.

"It's been a long day for me, but I still managed to pull out a world record, so I'm very happy with that," said Davies.

"It's nice to know that even with the fatigue, there's a lot more in the bag.

"It's nice because we've changed so much over the winter training-wise and technically as well, so we need to keep pushing those barriers.

"I'm looking forward to beating 50m this year.

"I know I can do it.

"I've done it in training.

"It's just delivering when it matters."

Martina Caironi came close to breaking her own T42 world record, set in Rome last June, as she came second in the women's T42/43/44 100m final ©Getty Images



Italy's Martina Caironi and South Africa's Ilse Hayes also came close to breaking world records in the sixth leg of this year's IPC Athletics Grand Prix.

Caironi came close in the women's T42/43/44 100m final as she finished second in a time of 15.26sec, just 0.08 slower than her own world record set in Rome last June.

The double world and Paralympic champion's world record is in the T42 category meaning teammate Guiseppina Versage's faster time had no effect on her record due to the athlete competing in T43.

In winning the T13 100m final in 12.04, Hayes came within 0.05 seconds of Cuban Omara Durand's world record, with her sights set on breaking the record at June's Grand Prix in Berlin

Germany's Markus Rehm almost became the first Paralympian to break the 8m mark in the long jump as he jumped a wind-assisted 7.96m the men's T44 class.

Had it not been for a 2.5m/s gust of wind, he would have added 1cm to his own world record set at the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon, France.

The morning session saw a number of 1,500m finals take place inside the Carlo Zecchini Olympic Stadium, yesterday awarded the 2016 IPC Athletics European Championships.

Switzerland's Alexandra Helbling pushed ahead of the pack to win the women's T53/54 event in 3:47.74, whilst Denmark's Ebbe Blichfeldt took the men's equivalent in 3:15.08.

The men's T20/36/37/38/46 1,500m was won by Russia's Pavel Sarkeev in a time of 4min 08.63sec, Italy's Matteo Comi finished in 5:22.98 to win the men's T11/12/13 race and his teammate Annalisa Minetti secured the women's equivalent in 5:00.47.

The afternoon session saw Davies add a second victory of the day as he threw 14.39m to take the shot put F40-46 crown.

Other victors in the days events included Finland's Toni Piispanen who won the men's 400m T51 in 1:25.70, Russia's Egor Sharov, who finished the 400m T11/12 race in 49.11 to add to a 1500m victory earlier in the day.

Italy's women dominated the discus as Deborah Orsi won the F51-53 event with a throw of 6.93m, whilst Carmen Acunto and Ermelinda Rosso won the F54-55 and F56-57 with throws of 16.28m and 14.17m respectively.

For a full set of results from the Grand Prix, click here.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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