September's IPC Athlete of the Month was Iranian archer Zahra Nemati ©Getty Images

Denmark's Lisa Gjessing is one of five nominees for the International Paralympic Committee's (IPC) Allianz Athlete of the Month prize for October after scooping her fourth World Para Taekwondo title.

Her gold medal at the London 2017 World Championships were that bit extra special because it was achieved with her two daughters watching on from the Copper Box Arena stands.

Gjessing has never lost a match in the women’s under 58 kilogram K44 category since taking up the sport in 2013.

“I saw them in the stand during my first match and I started crying but thought 'No, you can’t cry now!’" said Gjessing. 

"When I went to the mat in the final I also felt like crying but told myself ‘You can’t be emotional now'," she told Paralympic.org.

“The sport is more than just giving us a competition, it is giving us a new goal in life, which means an awful lot,
“The sport is more than just giving us a competition, it is giving us a new goal in life, which means an awful lot," says Denmark's Lisa Gjessing, pictured here with her family ©Lisa Gjessing

Voting closes next Friday (10 November) with the public able to vote for the winner on www.paralympic.org, with the other four nominees including a second athlete from the taekwondo  world, in Mongolia's Enkhtuya Khurelbaatar.

Also nominated are Japan's ice hockey star Wataru Horie, Ivan Sivak, Ukraine, Para-dance sport and Alberto Simonelli, Italy, archery.

The five nominations are,clockwise from top left: Simonelli, Gjessing, Khurelbaatar, Sivak and Horie who all vying for the October Athlete of the Month award ©Getty Images
The five nominations are,clockwise from top left: Simonelli, Gjessing, Khurelbaatar, Sivak and Horie who all vying for the October Athlete of the Month award ©Getty Images

At the Asian Para Taekwondo Open, Khurelbaatar defeated the world number one in the women’s under 49 kg K44. 

There was also no stopping her at the London 2017 World Para Taekwondo Championships, where she added world gold to her continental title.

Horie stepped up for his team after one of their defencemen went down to an injury at the 2017 World Para Ice Hockey Paralympic Winter Games Qualification Tournament. 

He was named the tournament’s Best Defenceman, helping Japan qualify for Pyeongchang 2018 with a second-place finish, scoring two goals and making five assists.

Multi-world and European champion Sivak captured his first World title in the men’s single class 2. 

He was competing as an individual dancer for the first time at the Championships after his wife and dance partner Nadiia passed away a year ago. 

Sivak also won the bronze medal in the men’s single freestyle class 2.

Simonelli became the second Para-archer in history to win a medal at an able-bodied World Archery Championships in Mexico City. 

Ninth-seeded Italy beat fourth-ranked Croatia in the compound men’s team semi-finals. 

The Unites States' Kevin Polish was the first Para-archer to win a Worlds medal in 2005.

The nominations are compiled from submissions by National Paralympic Committees and International Federations.