Blair, Middleton Bring Home Medals for Team USA on Day Seven in Kobe

KOBE, JAPAN – Paralympic champion David Blair (Eagle Mountain, Utah) defended his discus world title and 16-year-old Arelle Middleton (Rancho Cucamonga, California) won the first international medal of her career to highlight a throws-heavy seventh day of competition at the 2024 Para Athletics World Championships in Kobe, Japan.

No stranger to the world championships stage, Blair won his second career world title and sixth worlds medal. The 2016 Paralympic champion threw a best mark of 60.13 meters to clinch a dominant victory over the rest of the field, winning his second consecutive worlds gold medal by more than six meters.

Blair held a comfortable lead after his second attempt fell at 58.73 meters, then extended that on his fifth attempt to put an exclamation point on the win.

“It was nice to get the win, it wasn’t a bad performance for me,” Blair said. “When you think about it, it’s humbling to be a back-to-back champion. I’m happy I could do it.”

Blair is preparing to make a run at his third Paralympic Games.

“We’ve got a lot of room for improvement,” he said. “Every year it’s harder to climb back up the hill, and this year has been especially hard. I’ve been working with a new coach, and he’s wonderful, but there’s a new dynamic there. You’ve got to crash and climb back up every year, you can’t just stay at the top or you’ll always crash, and this year it’s been tough.”

Still in high school, Middleton impressed in her worlds debut, securing the silver medal in the women’s shot put F64 with a season’s best throw of 11.84. The youngest member of Team USA at Kobe 2024 by several years, Middleton also finished sixth in discus earlier in the week.

Middleton went up against a field that included Paralympic medalists Yao Juan and Yang Yue of China. The high schooler, who was one of U.S. Paralympics Track & Field’s 2024 High School Athletes of the Year, was able to throw her best mark on her fifth attempt.

“I feel really accomplished to win my first ‘real’ medal,” she said. “I’m just excited and looking forward to what’s coming up next. I was able to stay confident and believe in myself, and my coach [Jasmine Burrell] helped me throughout the week.”

Rounding out Team USA’s results on the day was Catarina Guimaraes (Cranford, New Jersey), who recorded a three-second personal best in the preliminary heats of the women’s 400-meter T38 to advance to Saturday’s final. Guimaraes, who has also competed in the 100-meter, 200-meter and long jump in her first career world championships, posted a time of 1:07.27, which obliterated her former personal best, which stood at 1:10.09.

Competition resumes tomorrow at 9 a.m. local time at the Universiade Memorial Stadium in Kobe. All sessions will be streamed live on the Paralympics YouTube Channel and the World Para Athletics Facebook page. For updates and results from Team USA, follow U.S. Paralympics Track & Field on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

For media requests and photo inquiries, please contact Kristen Gowdy at Kristen.Gowdy@usopc.org.

Team USA Medals – May 23

GOLD
David Blair – men’s discus F64

SILVER
Arelle Middleton – women’s shot put F64

Other Team USA Results
Catarina Guimaraes – finals, women’s 400-meter T38