Fire Sparked For Aussie Powerlifters Who Took On World’s Best

Among the many lessons Australia’s Para-powerlifters learned at the World Championships in Egypt, the realisation of what’s required to reach the top of the sport may well be the most valuable, head coach Simon Bergner has suggested. 

The nation’s 14-strong squad returned from Cairo early on Tuesday to take stock after competing at the toughest World Para-Powerlifting Championships ever staged, featuring 537 athletes from 70 nations, including all Paralympic champions from Paris 2024.  

The team represented the nation proudly, with Paris Paralympian Hani Watson securing the top result, a best lift of 142 kilograms to finish seventh in the women’s over 86kg event.  

Shanaya Soni (women’s up to 79kg) and Justin Marafioti (men’s over 107kg) each registered a personal best at their debut international competition, and Dylan Braan overcame illness to lift a best of 164 kilograms in the men’s over 107kg event to break a long-standing Oceania record.  

However, as encouraging as these and other successes were, the calibre of competition on show at the championships provided Australian team members plenty of motivation to work hard towards next year’s Commonwealth Games and the Los Angeles Paralympics in 2028. 

“It was awesome for our team to see what we’ve got ahead of us now, to get that exposure to competing internationally,” Bergner said.  

“It like ‘Hey, this is what we’re competing against as a nation’. I think it’s going to spark the fire in our athletes to want to keep on top of their recovery, be diligent in their training and improve technically. I think for a lot of athletes that’ll be a really big boost for them.  

“Competing against athletes from China, Nigeria and all the other strong nations in this sport, you realise you’re not just competing in Australia where there might be one or two people in your weight class, you’re competing against 30 other people from all over the world. And those 30 other people are the best athletes in their weight class from their country.  

“The quality across the classes is immense. The Paralympics is the top eight in the world in each class, and it seems like the quality of performances has risen anywhere between three and 10 percent since the last world championships.  

“There is great depth and quality from first place to 10th place now, which is great for the sport. Training methodologies have improved, but also, I think it’s just participation; the depth of people now participating in the sport has grown a lot.” 

The Australian team was our largest to compete at a world championship. Only Watson and Ben Wright could be considered experienced campaigners, having competed at multiple championships and the Paris Games last year. Watson was nearly able to complete a big final lift in an effort to sneak into third place.  

“The whole team, for where they’re at on this journey, I think did really well,” Bergner said.  

“Hani put herself in contention to be able to medal at a world championship, which was a huge achievement. Other athletes came away with personal bests and Dylan broke the Oceania record when we weren’t even sure if he’d be able to compete.  

“So there was some good results. I think some people that hadn’t competed internationally probably found the refereeing and judging more challenging than what it could be nationally. Also, the travelling was a big challenge. It’s a long trip, you’ve got the jet lag and getting used to a new place. We had shortened allocation times for training. We had to be diligent with our time.  

“Then there was the fact that they were competing against other high calibre athletes at a major event. That was a big one in particular for athletes that haven’t competed at this level before.” 

The Commonwealth Games qualification period finishes at the end of this year, with one more qualification event to come, on December 13 in Melbourne.  

Take a look at the full results table below.

Female athletes:

Male athletes:

By David Sygall, Paralympics Australia.

Published 23 October, 2025.