Brazil has already won 14 medals at the Tokyo Paralympics, including five golds, to finish seventh in the standings table on Friday (27). China leads the Games, followed by the United Kingdom and the Russian Paralympic Committee.
Brazil has already won 14 medals at the Tokyo Paralympics, including five golds, to finish seventh in the standings table on Friday (27). China leads the Games, followed by the United Kingdom and the Russian Paralympic Committee.
Sprinter Yeltsin Jack was the first athlete to win a gold medal in track and field athletics at the Tokyo Games, defeating Japan’s Kenya Karasawa in the men’s 5000m final in the blind T11 category.
“I have speed, I have energy. I’m naturally fast, it’s genetic,” Jack said in an interview with AFP.
The Brazilian also won the first gold in the long jump, won by Sylvania Costa de Oliveira, of Minas Gerais, part of the T11 class. She beat Asilah Mirzayurova, of Uzbekistan, and Yulia Pavlenko, of Ukraine, in her five metres, her best record of the season.
Paralympic games world record holder Petrochio Ferreira dos Santos set another 100m record with a time of 10sec 52. He competed in the T46/47 class for athletes with upper limb disabilities. With this achievement, Paraiba became a two-time world champion, winning the same competition at the 2016 Rio Games.
swimming
In swimming, Gabriel Bandera won gold in the 100m butterfly in the S14 class. Categories range from S1 to S11, and the higher the number, the more impaired the physical movement. Gabriel Araujo of Minas Gerais won the silver in the 100m backstroke in the S2 class. Finally, Daniel Dias, the sport’s biggest name among Brazilian athletes at these Paralympics, took the bronze medal in the 4x50m relay. He swam in a team with Patricia Santos, Joanna Neves, and Talison Gluck.
On Friday, swimming had another day of accomplishments. Athlete Wendell Pereira won his fifth gold in Brazil in the 50m freestyle, in the S11 class. In the 100-meter freestyle, Gabriel Bandera also won the silver medal in the Japanese swimming pools, in the S14 class.
Swimmer Maria Carolina Santiago also won a Brazilian swimming medal on Friday, taking the bronze in the 100m backstroke, in the S12 class. In 2019, the athlete took first place at the World Championships in Freestyle Swimming in London. In an interview with RFI Earlier this week, he talked about the high level of the competitors.
“If we actually win a medal in the world 100 championships, it will be no different here,” he said.
At the Tokyo Games, Brazil also won silver in wheelchair fencing, for athlete Giovanni Gisoni, and in dressage for equestrian Rodolfo Riscala.
Athletes Scholarship
Among the athletes who are part of the Brazilian delegation this year, 95% have received support from the federal government through Bolsa Atleta, a program of the Special Secretariat for Sports of the Ministry of Citizenship. At the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, five years ago, Brazilians won all 72 medals won by Brazil and earned the advantage.
The number of Paralympic athletes joining the Brazilian delegation is increasing every year. In the Tokyo Olympics, 259 Brazilians compete.
