Leo-Pekka Tähti smashes wheelchair racing 100m world record

Leo-Pekka Tähti

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Wheelchair racing Paralympics winner Leo-Pekka Tähti produced a tremendous result on the scoreboard at an international meet in Ibach, Switzerland on Thursday.
     
Aided by a 1m/second tailwind, the Finn smashed the 100-metre wheelchair racing world record, which now reads 13.59 seconds. This means Tähti shaved off 0.29 seconds from the previous record of 13.88, also in his name and set two years ago.
      "I have to admit the time was a slight surprise, even though I knew I was in good shape. I thought something like a 13.7 would be possible, but this was a bit of a slip-up", the good-humoured world record holder laughed when interviewed over the telephone.
     
"The entire season I have had some problems between 60 and 100 metres, but now even that fell into place. I attained a high maximum speed, which set this attempt apart from the season’s previous races”, analysed Tähti, who represents the Pori Tarmo track club in Finland.
      The runner-up in the race, the Dutch wheelchair racing titan Kenny van Weeghel, crossed the finish line nearly 0.4 seconds behind Tähti. Since van Weeghel is definitely no slouch, from the Beijing Paralympics point of view this result looks promising.
      Tähti has 100-metre and 200-metre gold medals to defend in September.
      "At this point I can be satisfied with the time. With regard to the 100 metres, the greatest worries were shed now that I finally produced the kind of result that I have been hoping for”, Tähti pondered.
     
The Ibach track seems to suit Tähti perfectly, for his previous world record from two years ago also saw daylight at the same venue. It was also the scene for Briton David Weir's 200-metre world record of 24.49, again in 2006. Weir is likely to be another major rival in Beijing.
      "They have a hard, particularly good mondo track here. Wheelchair racers from all over the world come here simply because the track is so fast", Tähti explained.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Paralympics gold-medalist Leo-Pekka Tähti enjoying his success (12.10.2004)

Links:
  Leo-Pekka Tähti (site in Finnish, but this page shows world (ME) and Finnish (SE) records)
  Wikipedia: Wheelchair racing
  2008 Summer Paralympics (Wikipedia)

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