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Rio Paralympics 2016-Nigeria tops Africa Gold Medal Chart

Games ended with colorful closing ceremony – singers, dancers and fireworks lit up the iconic stadium.

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Laois swimmer Nicole Turner carried the Irish flag into the stadium.

Czechowski won her fourth Paralympics medal in Rio, as part as the women’s goalball team that captured the bronze medal.

Britain’s Olympic athletes won 27 golds from 15 sports, and 67 medals in total, smashing UK Sport’s pre-Games target of at least 48 medals, meaning Rio was the nation’s most successful “away” Games.

But the celebratory mood was overshadowed by the death of Iranian cyclist Sarafraz Bahman Golbarnezhad.

Paying tribute to Golbarnezhad, president of the Rio 2016 Organising Committee Carlos Nuzman, said: “I want to send a message to the athletes of Iran, our prayers are with you”.

The incredible performances of Team GB and ParalympicsGB athletes at the Rio 2016 Games will be celebrated on October 17 and October 18 in Manchester and London respectively.

“He was 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”, said Golbarnezhad’s national Paralympic Committee.

Brazilian officials handed over the flag to Tokyo for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games as the 11 day long global sports event ended today.

Television viewing figures for the Games reached an all-time high, according to paralympic.org, with organizers expecting the cumulative global TV audience for the event to top four billion people.

ParalympicsGB performance followed Team GB’s brilliant second place in the medal table at the Olympic Games.

Brazil stood 8th in Rio Paralympics with 72 medals-14 gold, 29 silver, and 29 bronze.

She said: “It was incredible, we got on so well in ParalympicsGB and it is so nice to be able to support them”.

Despite having won more medals than in London 2012, this year Brazil stood at a worse position, because the country won fewer gold medals.

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Ekweremadu, who stated this in his congratulatory message to Team Nigeria, called on other Nigerian athletes and national teams to emulate the Nigerian spirit exhibited by the Paralympians.

Paralympics closing ceremony