Chiassaro and Cockroft revel in Grand Prix records

Richard Chiassaro closed the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in style with a European record in the T54 400m.

His time of 45.26 seconds slashed 0.72s off his previous personal best, with the 36-year-old thrilled to prove that hard work does reap its rewards.

That brought the curtain down on an impressive three days for the British contingent in Nottwil, Switzerland, with Hannah Cockroft and Nathan Maguire among those breaking records on the track.

“The hard work has paid off. I’ll go away and rest for a few days and look to go even quicker on Thursday at the Daniela Jutzeler meeting,” said Chiassaro.

“We’ve been working on getting off the line quicker with the hard gloves.

“My top speed is very good as well and I’m holding it for longer as well.

That concluded an impressive weekend for the Paralympian and world bronze medallist, going under 25 seconds for the first time in the T54 200m, stopping the clock in a time of 24.42s, while a lifetime best came his way across 100m.

Chiassaro wasn’t the only leading Brit in action on the final day of competition, with Cockroft narrowly missing her own world record in the T34 400m.

She breezed to the win, but couldn’t quite better her own global standard, within 0.16 seconds with a time of 57.89s.

With two more events left in Switzerland to improve on her own prowess, Cockroft should be relaxing – but that is not in the nature of the athlete, who posted her fastest time across 200m for three years earlier in the meet.

“It felt really fast today,” said the five-time Paralympic champion. “I had good top speed and I didn’t tire at the end so all positives really.

“I’m really enjoying the 400m and I’m just consistently trying to get under a minute.

“My 800m is consistently under two minutes, so there is no reason why I shouldn’t be doing it under the 400m.”

Dillon Labrooy also had two personal bests to celebrate on a quick track, in the 200m and 800m, with Eden Rainbow-Cooper seeing new best times to her name in the 100m, 200m and 800m – on the track where she competed at the inaugural World Para Athletics Junior Championships last August.

And there was a hat-trick of positive performances for Maguire too, recording PBs in the 100m and 200m earlier in the meet, drawing his competition to a conclusion by taking more than a second off his 400m best.

His previous best time of 47.96s shot down to 46.39s, two years since making his Paralympic debut at Rio 2016.