A 48-year-old Iranian para -cyclist, identified as Bahman Golbarnezhad, yesterday, died after a crash during a race at the Rio Paralympics in Brazil.
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He initially survived the crash and received treatment at the side of the road but had a Cardiac arrest on his way to the Paralympics’ athlete hospital. However, he was declared dead after reaching a hospital in Rio.
“The tragic news of the passing away of our beloved cyclist Bahman Golbarnezhad in an accident during the Rio Paralympic Games has weighed down our hearts with deepest sorrow”, President Hassan Rouhani said in a Tweet published on his official account on Saturday.
“This is truly heart-breaking news”, IPC president Philip Craven said.
According to the International Paralympics Committee, it is believed that is the first death ever in a Paralympics. As per reports, Golbarnez had crashed about 10:40 a.m. local time on a mountainous stretch of the road cycling course.
The Iranian flag was lowered to half-mast in the Paralympic Village, while the Paralympic flag was to be at half mast during Sunday’s sitting volleyball gold-medal match between Iran and Bosnia and Herzegovina – another of the final events.
British Cycling tweeted: “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Iran’s Bahman Golbarnezhad, who tragically died after a crash in today’s C4-5 road race”.
And at the closing ceremony in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana football stadium Brazilian officials were officially to hand over to Tokyo for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. He was the only cyclist from Iran to participate in the Games, and Golbarnezhad had participated in the past edition of the 2012 Paralympics as well.
The Iranian Paralympic Committee described Golbarnezhad as “an exemplary Paralympic sportsman who, with love and energy, tried his best to promote the name of Iran and to make all of us proud and at the end he gave his life for this”.
The IPC said Golbarnezhad’s family in Iran have been notified and his Iranian team-mates were told as a group in the Athlete Village.
“This is very sad news for sport and for the Paralympic movement”. He finished 14th in the C4 time trial on Wednesday.
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An investigation into the accident has been launched.
