Share

Paralympic Games concludes in Rio amid fireworks and sadness

The famous Maracana football stadium was packed, with the Paralympians themselves seated across the field, as proceedings kicked off with fireworks.

Advertisement

The ceremony also paid tribute with a minute of silence to Iranian cyclist Bahman Golbarnezhad, who died on September 17 from a cardiac attack during a road race.

The ceremony continued with musical performances by Saulo, singer Negro do Borel and a funk group from Rio de Janeiro the Dream Team do Passinho.

Chinese athletes continued their dominance at the 2016 Paralympic Games, which draws to a close on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro.

With Brazil hit by political turmoil and recession, Mr. Nuzman conceded it had been a “mission of many doubts”, but was happy to declare the event as being “mission accomplished”.

“The passing of Iranian cyclist Bahman Golbarnezhad has affected us all and left the whole Paralympic movement united in grief”.

The penultimate day of the Rio 2016 Games saw Team SA earn their final three medals, with Dyan Buis emulating fellow South African Wayde van Niekerk by winning gold in the 400m T38 final while setting a new Games record in a time of 49.43 seconds.

It means Great Britain ended the Paralympics in second place in the table behind China with success also being seen on social media as numerous nation’s athletes, and particularly those from London, enjoying spikes in Twitter traffic.

This year, the Russian national team did not take part in the games.

“There was a feeling that Brazil is such a big mess”, Santoro said.

Britain confirmed its place as a sporting powerhouse by coming second in both the Olympic and Paralympic medal tables.

The 25-year-old from Leeds became the first Briton in 28 years to win medals in two sports at one Games and the first in 32 years to claim gold medals in two sports at the same Paralympics.

Esther, who won silver in the Powerlifting Women’s -55 kg category in Rio, said she and her colleagues were motivated to do better at the next competition.

T13 1500m – the top four finishers of the visually impaired 1500m, won by Algeria’s Abdellatif Baka, were quicker than American Matt Centrowitz when he won Olympic gold a few weeks earlier.

Pezaro won her ninth Paralympic medal in Rio, finishing third in the women’s SM5 200m individual medley final.

Once more, it was China that dominated overall, with nearly 100 medals more than its nearest rival, Britain, which held a comfortable second place.

Advertisement

The Thai athletes with disabilities took home a record six gold, six silver and six bronze medals from the Rio tournament.

Rio Paralympics stages closing ceremony