UIPM 2025 Para Tetrathlon World Championships: Irbin (ITA) is champion among pioneers

Vicco Irbin of Italy went down in history as individual winner of the inaugural UIPM Para Tetrathlon World Championships in Druskininkai, Lithuania, while Ukraine was recognised with the team medal.

In a major step forward for the UIPM Para Sports movement, a group of pioneering athletes tackled the new format of Para Obstacle > Para Swimming > Para Laser Run.

Classified in sports class PMP5 and coming together from different Para sport backgrounds, each competitor showed different attributes during the sequence.

Chris Harriss of Great Britain put down an early marker with an outstanding Para Obstacle time of 43.83sec to take a 25-point lead.

Ivan Artiukh (UKR) then made his move in the pool with a Para Swimming time of 1min 12.16sec, moving to 3rd overall behind Harriss (GBR) and the consistent Irbin (ITA), who started the Laser Run with a significant lead having ranked 2nd in both of the first two disciplines.

Irbin (ITA) then showed unflappable nerves to hold on to his advantage, becoming the inaugural Para Tetrathlon gold medallist with Harriss (GBR) claiming silver and Yoan Argiolas of France coming from behind to secure bronze.

Gold medallist Vicco Irbin (ITA) said: “I feel very, very happy. I’m so proud to be part of history in Pentathlon/Tetrathlon. I didn’t believe I could do this and I’m very happy.

“I hope I did a good job for Italy and for the Paralympic movement.

“I was a Paralympic athlete in long jump, so the track arena is like my second home. When I was younger I did swimming racing with one of the biggest teams in Paralympic sport. For me it was the first time doing the OCR, but it was very good fun. I think if I start to train I can do much, much better because I didn’t train until now.

“I started training in Para sport at 22 or 23. Now that I can also do OCR, I would like to continue because I really enjoyed these moments and these days. I very much like this world. Why not? I dream to be a complete athlete.”

Dr Nicola Robinson, Chair of the UIPM Para Pentathlon Commission, commented: “Today we witnessed history with the very first Para Tetrathlon World Championships here in Lithuania.

“To see PMP5 athletes come together on the world stage, competing with such courage and determination in Obstacle, Swimming and Laser Run is nothing short of inspiring.

“This is more than a championship — it is a celebration of resilience, talent and the unifying spirit of our sport. I could not be prouder of every athlete and of this milestone moment for Para pentathlon.”