A German court has dismissed appeals by 84 Russian athletes seeking to compete at the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.
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The Olympic Games of 2016 were held in Rio this year and concluded just last month.
Raj, himself a former para athlete, launched a scathing attack on officials traveling for the Paralympics in Rio, saying majority treat such events as vacation.
The tournament – the 15th since the first official Paralympic Games were held in Rome in 1964 – has been unable to escape some of the controversy surrounding its sister games, the Olympics, as the entire Russian team were banned for alleged state sponsored doping.
The BPA’s chief executive Tim Hollingsworth denied there had been any attempts to cheat the system.
The IPC says the system is always under review, while UK Athletics said it will look at classifications after Rio, standard practice for the body after every Games.
Six countries are sending athletes for the very first time, and Syrian swimmer Ibrahim Al-Hussein, who lost a leg in an explosion in his nation’s civil war, and Iranian discus thrower Shahrad Nasajpour make up a two-strong refugee team.
South Africa’s most experienced paralympian is Ernst van Dyk, who will be competing in his seventh Paralympic Games in Brazil, with cycling and wheelchair racing on his mind. His rivals in the powerlifting over 107kg category have already conceded the gold medal to the Iranian.
Of the 162 athletes representing Team Canada, 44 of them either live or train in British Columbia. The result put Russian Federation in second place in the overall medals table.
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This year’s Paralympics have however caught the wrong spotlight with reports citing poor funding as Philip Craven, president of the International Paralympic Committee told The Associated Press, “This is the worst situation that we’ve ever found ourselves in at Paralympic movement. They also give their best to win laurels for the country and it’s not recreational sport”, she said.
