Haiyan Gu nominated for IPC’s Athlete of the Month
05/12/2018
The 19-year-old claimed her first World Cup win in the women's foil category A in Tbilisi, Georgia, ahead of the reigning world champion.
China’s wheelchair fencer Haiyan Gu has been nominated for the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) Athlete of the Month for November.
The 19-year-old beat Hungary’s world champion Zsuzsanna Krajnyak in the women’s foil category A with an impressive 15-8 score at the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports (IWAS) Wheelchair Fencing World Cup in Tbilisi, Georgia.
It was Gu’s first World Cup win in the foil and adds to her Asian Championships silver medal from October.
The other nominees are Gu’s snowboarding compatriot Sun Qi, Finland’s Matti Suur-Hamari and South Korean judoka Soohee Choi.
The public has until 12:00 (CEST) on Tuesday (11 December) to vote for the athlete they want to be the Allianz Athlete of the Month for November 2018 via the IPC homepage.
The nominations are compiled from submissions by National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) and International Federations (IFs).
The 2018 winners are:
January – Oksana Masters, USA, Nordic skiing
February – Mac Marcoux, CAN, alpine skiing
March (Best Male) – Brian McKeever, CAN, Nordic skiing
March (Best Female) – Ekaterina Rumyantseva, NPA, Nordic skiing
March (Best Team) – Chinese wheelchair curling team
April – Gemma Collis-McCann, GBR, wheelchair fencing
May – Sareh Javanmardi, IRI, shooting
June – Sevda Altunoluk, TUR, goalball
July – Morteza Mehrzadselakjani, IRI, sitting volleyball
August – Greg Polychronidis, GRE, boccia
September – Corne de Koning, NED, rowing
October – Japanese women’s goalball team