Ayumi hirayama

World Para Athletics Championships: As the 2025 World Para Athletics Championships progress successfully in New Delhi, there are bound to be comparisons with the previous editions. But Japan's representatives find Delhi as good as Kobe, though a bit hotter literally and figuratively, as they end their gold medal drought in WAPC 2025 on Friday.

The last World Para Athletics Championship was hosted by Kobe in Japan in 2024. The latest edition, the New Delhi 2025 World Para Athletics Championships, is underway at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the national capital. The 61-member Japanese contingent, out of which 31 are athletes, is here in full force, and there is no one better than them to ask about how both editions compare.

Ayumi Hirayama, administrative personnel NPC Japan, chuckled when asked to make comparisons. “First and foremost, the weather is slightly different. Kobe is fairly hot and humid, but here it’s even more humid.”