Haiyan Gu nominated for IPC’s Athlete of the Month

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