Saman Pakbaz from Iran won a gold medal in the men’s shot put F12 after at the penultimate day of the World Para Athletics Championships London 2017 on Saturday.

He threw a season’s best 15.82m as he finished ahead of the two men that joined him on the podium in Doha and Rio, Ukrainian Roman Danyliuk (15.61m) and Spain’s Kim Lopez Gonzalez (15.44m).

“I have been thinking about becoming the world champion in this event every day. If you want to be the champion, you have to think this way. I was wondering how it would feel in London,” said Pakbaz.

“I am a bit upset I did not manage to show longer throws because it was very important to me. The weather was not a problem today. Standing on the podium, I will mainly think of the tomorrow’s discus throw competition. I hope I will be able to show a good result there,” the thrower added. 

Pakbaz’s compatriot Siamak Saleh Farajzadeh seized the silver medal in the men’s discus F34 with a throw of 35.02m.

Yanzhang Wang (37.16m) took China’s gold medal tally up to 23 and Tunisian Mohamed Ali Krid (34.35m) claimed bronze.