India, Oct. 5 -- In so far as poetic endings go, Markus Rehm's golden campaign at the World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi has been right on the money. Sixteen years after he made his international debut in India at a meet in Bengaluru, the German T64 long jumper rewrote his championship record that had stood for 10 years at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Friday, leaping a distance of 8.43m.

The Indian men's able-bodied national record stands at 8.42m. It may not be an apt comparison considering that the biomechanical difference between an able-bodied athlete and the one using a prosthetic can be immense - Rehm' coach Steffi Nerius says the claims of advantage are unproven, but it gives a fair overview of the 37-year-old'...