World Para Championships: Magnificent Mali stuns with silver medal

16 July 2023

World Para Championships: Magnificent Mali stuns with silver medal

In her international debut, Northern Beaches teenager Mali Lovell (UTS Norths) has risen to the occasion to claim silver in the T36 200m event at the World Para Athletics Championships in Paris last night.

After placing seventh in the 100m two days earlier, going into the 200m event Mali was ranked third. Battling a strong headwind of 2.7m/s, Mali broke her own Australian record to clock 30.19 seconds and comfortably defeat Germany Nicole Nicoleitzik who ran 30.84 seconds to claim the bronze.

Mali surprised herself with her performance.

“This is incredible! I wasn’t expecting to get second and to do a personal best is so good. This is amazing, it means everything to me, I don’t even know what to say. We’ve got another year to prepare for the Paralympics, so I will train hard and aim for that,” Mali told Athletics Australia.

The winner was New Zealand’s Danielle Aitchison in an Oceania record time of 28.50. On pre-race rankings Mali’s main competition for a podium was expected to be Aitchison, Argentinian Yanina Martinez (who finished 7th) and South Korean Min Jae Jeon (who was 6th) in the world class field.

Mali also created history as Australia’s first T36 200m women’s medallist at the World Para Athletics Championships.

Mali is coached by Katie Edwards, mother of Australian junior record holder Kristie Edwards and Olympian Melinda Gainsford-Taylor. Melinda wrote on Instagram: “Oh my goodness @malilovellsporty we are SO incredibly proud of you ❤️❤️❤️”, while Katie wrote: “Mali you were just awesome ⭐️🇹🇫⭐️so proud of you❤️”.

For the next 12 months Mali will have a strong focus on the Paris Paralympics, where both the T36 100m and 200m are on the program. As a 17-year-old she was close to selection for the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021.

Mali’s medal presentation will be Sunday night at 20:48 AEST, broadcast live on 9Now.

Mali’s para classification is T36 which includes people who have coordination impairments such as hypertonia, ataxia and athetosis. It includes people with cerebral palsy.

Read more about Mali in her profile: https://www.athletics.com.au/paralympic-athlete-profiles/malilovell/

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW
Image: Mali Lovell (courtesy of Athletics Australia)