Meanwhile, the Iranian flag can be seen flying at half-mast in the Paralympic Village, and a moment of silence has been planned for tonight’s closing ceremony.
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.
Golbarnezhad, who wore a prosthesis on his left leg, began competing in the sport in 2002.
The Rio Paralympics ended on Sunday on a high with a glitzy closing ceremony.
Nevertheless, Rio is expected to put on a dazzling show at the Maracana, featuring Brazil’s rich music and dance culture to celebrate a far better Paralympics than many had believed was possible.
The People’s Republic of China once again dominated the global sporting arena after securing a total of 239 medals from the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
It overshadowed a Paralympics that dealt with both a funding and doping crisis to be a success, saving the Games experience for the Brazilian public after the scandal-marred Olympics.
She said: “I would not want the Russian Federation debate to deflect from the quality of the performances of this Paralympic team, the number of world and Paralympic records broken”.
Iran secured their sixth Paralympic Games sitting volleyball gold medal with an emotional four-set victory over defending champions Bosnia and Herzegovina, dedicating their triumph to team-mate Bahman Golbarnezhad, tragically killed following a crash in the cycling yesterday.
Mr Golbarnezhad received emergency treatment on the course and suffered cardiac arrest while he was being transported to a Rio hospital, where he died.
By the end, officials said, they had sold 2.1 million tickets-less than London in 2012 but more than Beijing four years earlier.
The Committee added that he was rushed to a Rio hospital where he was confirmed dead.
Bahman Golbarnezhad crashed on the downhill slope of the C4-5 classification road race.
Fijian table tennis player Mere Rodan may have lost her two singles matches but President of the Oceania Paralympic Committee, Paul Bird, said just by competing the 48-year-old created history.
“The Paralympic family is united in grief at this horrendous tragedy, which casts a shadow over what have been a great Paralympic Games here in Rio”. He was married and had one son.
Storey, who won four golds in four events at London 2012 to take her Paralympic title tally to 11 before giving birth to daughter Louisa in 2013, said: “Each Games is so special for many different reasons. Thoughts to family, friends & the whole team”.
Advertisement
“Every story that every Paralympian has, not just from our team but every story you hear about how people have been injured or how they acquired their disability or overcame their disability to achieve greatness on the sporting field, is pretty awesome”, he said.
