Since the opening day of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, Iranian athletes have garnered 16 medals so far, six of them gold, six of them silver and 4 of them bronze.
The world’s strongest Paralympian re-wrote the history books on Wednesday (September 14) as he cleared the bar at 310kg on a dramatic final day of powerlifting competition at Rio 2016.
Iranian Weightlifter Siamand Rahman, the world’s strongest Paralympian, broke his own world record of paralympian powerlifting (296 kilograms) 2 times on Wednesday (September 14) clearing the bar at 270kg, 300kg, 305kg, and 310kg on a dramatic final day of powerlifting competition at Rio 2016.
His expected appearance at Riocentro Pavilion 2 with the reckoning of record breaking performance had drawn that many spectators to the venue to leave the hall brimmed with roar no vacant seat.
His first lift of 270 kilograms secured him the gold medal of Men's +107kg Group A before clearing the bar of 300 kilograms at his second lift. His 3rd lift of 305 kilograms and 4th lift of 310 kilograms let him re-wrote the history books of the field with an untouchable position for the athlete.
The 28 year old Rahman had already garnered 9 gold medals and two silver medals at international events around the world and the Rio’s medal made his list of medals even more shining with 10 gold medals.
The first athlete of Iran’s delegation to Rio winning a medal was Saman Pakbaz who bagged the silver medal of the men's shot put F12 category competitions on Thursday (September 08).
Iranian sitting volleyball players, meanwhile, have been crushing over rivals to secure their way to the semi-final round of the competitions in Rio as they trounced Ukraine in three consecutive sets (25-22, 28-26 and 25-20) in the last event of Men's Preliminaries Pool B, on Wednesday. The US, Germany, Egypt, and China comprised the Pool A of the competitions.
They had already defeated 2 of their fellow Pool B rivals obtaining a sweeping victory over Chinese rivals on Saturday (September 10), and winning over Bosnia & Herzegovina on Monday (September 12).
The Bosnia and Herzegovina men’s team had won its first gold medal in Paralympic Games history, at the Athens 2004 Games beating Iran to the gold but they were defeated in three consecutive sets (25-17, 25-22 and 25-17).
The tallest Paralympian in Rio, and indeed the tallest athlete in the history of the Games, Morteza Mehrzadselakjani of Iran, with a height of 246 centimeters, has been under light spot since the opening day when the Iranian Paralympic delegation marched into the Maracana on September 07. He has also been accounted for the recent 3-0 victories of the Iranian side to that extent that he has been described as Iran’s key to the status of unbeatable.
Reaching the final in the past seven editions of the Games, the Iranian men’s team has amassed five gold medals and two silvers since Seoul 1988, and is one of the dominant forces in the Paralympic Games.
In another success for the Iranian delegation, the Iranian men's national 7-a-side football team humiliated Brizilians 5-1 at the semi-final on Wednesday to line up against Ukraine on Friday in a match in quest of the gold medal.
This is while the Iranians of 7-a-side football team despite their superiority were not given a ticket to the competitions before the exclusion of Russia’s 7-a-side football team from the Rio Paralympic games.
Meanwhile Iran’s national 5-a-side football team lined up against three-time Paralympic 5-a-side champions Brazil on Tuesday in their final Men's Preliminaries Pool A bout at 2016 Rio Paralympics, and grabbed the one point of the event after ending with a scoreless draw and got to the semi final match of the competitions against the top team of Pool B, Argentina, on Thursday.
Winning over Morocco 2-0 on Sunday, had already secured the second position of the Pool for the Iranian side to book their place in the semifinals.
The first gold medal of Iran’s delegation was acquired by Sareh Javanmardi on September 10 when the member of Iran’s shooting squad bagged 193.4 points at the finals of Women's P2-10m Air Pistol-SH1 competitions and stood on top of the podium.
The 31-year-old sportswoman of Iran won another gold medal on Wednesday, after garnering 189.5 scores (a new finals Paralympic record) in P4 mixed 50-meter pistol SH1 competitions ranking first ahead of China’s Chao Yang who finished with 186.5 points and Ukrainian Oleksii Denysiuk with 160.8 point who respectively stood on the second and third place.
“I’m very happy that I could get a very good result in this event,” said Javamardi. “Besides a gold medal in 10m air pistol, one of my biggest wishes was to get a gold medal in 50m as well and I achieved this!”
The Iranian gold winners in Rio have been Sareh Javanmardi (2 times), Majid Farzin, Mohammad Khalouvandi, Gholamreza Rahimi, and Siamand Rahman.
The silver winner paralympian athletes of Iran have so far been Saman Pakbaz, Alireza Ghalenasseri, Nemati and Ranjbar, Sajjad Mohammadian, Abdollah Heidari, and Sajjad Neikparast.
Peyman Nassiri, Ebrahim Ranjbar, Ali Sadeghzadeh, and Asadollah Azimi have bagged the bronze medals of Iran’s delegation so far.
To commemorate the loss of around 500 Iranian pilgrims in last year’s tragedy of Mina the Iranian squad of athletes attending Rio Paralympics is called the Mina delegation.
The Mina delegation of Iranian Paralympians at the Rio Paralympics is comprised of 111 sportspeople who vie at 12 fields of the 23 athletics.
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