The Iranian outfit managed to beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 3-1 at Riocentro, Rio de Janeiro, on Sunday, winning the prestigious gold for the sixth time in the Paralympics.
Advertisement
Golbarnezhad is the first athlete to die during Paralympic competition, the International Paralympic Committee said, after a crash in Saturday’s men’s C4/C5 road race.
Eduardo Paes the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro applauds as Sir Philip Craven President of the IPC hands the Paralympic flag to the Governor of Tokyo Yuriko Koike during the closing ceremony of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. The Great Britain came second with 147 medals in total, followed by Ukraine with 117, United States with 115, and Australia with 81 medals. Tristen Chernove alone won three medals – gold, silver and bronze.
“These athletes showed Canada and the world their determination, spirit, and sportsmanship”.
With the Paralympics concluded, the final medal tally had China sitting atop the medals table with 239 medals, including 107 golds.
Once more, it was China that dominated overall, with nearly 100 medals more than its nearest rival, Britain, which held a comfortable second place. In swimming, the Brazilian athletes received 19 medals. Again, a historic silver medal came when Deepa Malik won second place in the women’s shotput F53 event with a personal best throw of 4.61 meters.
Host nation Brazil finished a disappointing eighth with 72 medals and fourteen golds.
“They like to talk and that adds to the competition”, said Carla, 2016 Rio Paralympics volunteer.
Bahman Golbarnezhad, 48, fell during the event and died of his injuries despite an attempt to take him to the hospital for treatment, officials said.
Some 11 of the athletes for the first time participated in Paralympics. Speaking to The Guardian, he said “Bahman was one of the most hard-working active athletes that we’ve had”.
“There is one bitterness and one sweetness”, said Masoud Ashrafi, the secretary general of Iran’s Paralympic Committee.
But after two fine Games in-a-row, Harbison fears that the difference in resources given to sport here in relation to other countries means that Ireland will struggle to hit these heights again in future Paralympics.
Advertisement
Dimitri Coutya, who took part in the Wheelchair Fencing at the Games, was the London-based Paralympian to have the highest increase in followers (38 per cent) during the tournament with Susie Rodgers close behind with a 36 per cent increase in new followers.
