Ambra Sabatini of Italy celebrates her first-ever Paralympic gold with compatriots Martina Caironi and Monica Contrafatto who won silver and bronze, respectively. (THOMAS LOVELOCK FOR OIS VIA AP)

Italy celebrates its best medal tally since 1960

Italy celebrated its best Paralympics performance in more than 60 years as its athletes won 69 medals at the Tokyo 2020 Games.

“Italian miracle”, proclaimed leading sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport, as it devoted wide coverage to the 115 countrywomen and men who competed in Japan, harvesting 14 gold medals, 29 silvers, and 26 bronzes across 11 disciplines overall.

Only in the first Paralympics held in Rome in 1960 did Italy win more medals (80). Observers pointed out that the 1960 games drew the participation of 400 athletes from 23 delegations, compared with the 4,537 athletes and 163 delegations present in Tokyo. Given this, Italy’s medal wins in Tokyo were deemed even more praiseworthy.

Among the major results this time was the podium sweep in the T63 100m race, which saw Ambra Sabatini winning the gold with a world record time, and her two colleagues Martina Caironi and Monica Graziana Contrafatto the silver and the bronze, respectively.

It was the first one-two-three in the athletics at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games as Italy’s golden run from the Olympic Games carried over.

“I cannot believe it,” Sabatini said. “It’s something we have been dreaming of ever since the (Italian) duo became a trio. We managed to do it.”

Another major cause for celebration was the individual Paralympic gold (the second in a row) won by wheelchair fencer Bebe Vio. The result was met with loud cheers, given that the athlete’s participation in the Tokyo Games, and perhaps even in future sports events, was once considered doubtful after she contracted a serious infection in spring.

Vio’s performance was also crucial to the silver medal won with Andrea Ionela Mogos and Loredana Trigilia in the women’s foil team competition, after losing 45-41 in the final to China.

In Paralympic swimming, Italy gained a total of 39 medals, of which 11 were gold.

Italian Paralympic Committee chief Luca Pancalli said the team’s success will help “build a better Italy”.

As to the main reasons behind the success, Pancalli spoke of solid preparations, but also of the mix of experienced and young athletes making up the Italian team.

He said they approached Tokyo 2020 being aware that “a 12-year-long cycle was about to come to an end”, which meant trying to both make the most of this year’s games and plan for the future ones.

“Over 50 percent of our delegation was made by (Olympics) novices, but the rest were veterans,” he noted. 

A second, more practical reason behind the good performance, Pancalli suggested, was the strong cooperation with the various branches of the Italian army, to which many of the Paralympic (and Olympic) athletes belong.

This usually allows access to sports facilities and to train regularly, which is overall difficult for Italian athletes not competing in the most common and beloved disciplines — such as soccer and volleyball — and even more so for disabled ones.

Malaysian clinches Para Badminton gold

The first Paralympic champions in Para Badminton were crowned at the Yoyogi National Stadium with Malaysia’s Cheah Liek Hou clinching the first gold of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games on Sept 4.

Cheah, who had a sensational run coming into the Games with two titles, defeated his Indonesian arch rival Dheva Anrimusthi 21-17, 21-15 for Malaysia’s first Para Badminton medal. Indonesian Suryo Nugroho claimed the bronze.

For Cheah, it was in fact a sweet revenge having lost to Anrimusthi at the Basel 2019 World Championships:

“I feel really great. I released all of my stress and tension, I released everything just now. This gold medal is for all Malaysian badminton lovers,” said the 33-year-old.

The six-time world champion, who exchanged messages with former Malaysian badminton legend Lee Chong Wei ahead of his final, acknowledged that his recent training with coach Rashed Sidek, Lee’s former coach, had paid him rich dividends.

In the women’s singles SU5 final, China’s Qiuxia Yang shocked the top seed from Japan, Ayako Suzuki, with a comfortable 21-17, 21-9 win. 

Australia to reward all athletes equally

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Sept 4 that the country’s Paralympic medalists will receive bonus payments equal to Olympic medalists.

Morrison told Parliament that the federal government would “provide additional support to Paralympics Australia” to guarantee that athletes who win medals in Tokyo “receive equivalent payments to our Olympic medalists.”

Olympians who won medals for Australia at the Tokyo Games were given A$20,000 (US$14,744) for gold, A$15,000 for silver and A$10,000 for bronze while Paralympians were not due to receive any bonuses due to a lack of funding, according to The Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Morrison confirmed that would soon change.

“I’m very pleased to announce that the government will provide additional support to Paralympics Australia to ensure our Paralympic medalists will receive equivalent payments to our Olympic medalists,” he said.

Australia was eighth on the Paralympic medal tally, with 21 gold medals, 29 silver and 30 bronze. By comparison, Australians won 17 gold, seven silver and 22 bronze medals at the Tokyo Summer Olympics.

The Sydney Opera House was lit up at night on Sept 5 with the faces of all 665 athletes that have represented Australia at the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Wang Jiachao cools off after finishing fourth in the Paralympic triathlon in Tokyo on Sept 4. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

China’s ‘Astro Boy’ misses medal narrowly

Wang Jiachao goes by the pseudonym “Astro Boy” on social media, in homage to the famous Japanese manga character. It is definitely a name well-chosen.

“Astro Boy derives from the English word ‘atom’, small but powerful. Although I am short, I am very powerful,” the Chinese Paralympic triathlete said.

“My dream is to compete in the Paralympics again.”

The 30-year-old former swimmer has now competed at four Paralympic Games, winning one gold, four silver and one bronze.

In Tokyo, China’s “one-armed ironman” narrowly failed to add another medal to his collection when he finished fourth in the triathlon PTS4, just 30 seconds behind Spain’s bronze medalist Alejandro Sanchez Palomero.

The Paralympic triathlon consists of a 750-meter swim, a 20-kilometer cycle and a 5-km run — all half the distance of the Olympic triathlon legs. 

Wang was placed fourth after the swimming leg, unsurprisingly his strongest discipline. At one point he moved into third spot on the bike leg, before ultimately settling for fourth in a time of 1 hour, 4 minutes and 54 seconds.

Wang lost his left arm in a high-voltage electricity accident at the age of 5, but learned to swim with one hand in a local river.

Wang explained that he overcame many difficulties while participating in international competitions, has made friends at home and abroad, and received a lot of help from people who did not expect anything in return.

“I can say I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I hadn’t chosen triathlon,” he added.

ROK clinches boccia pairs gold for 9th time

The Republic of Korea won the Paralympic boccia gold medal for the ninth consecutive time, prompting congratulatory messages for the athletes. 

In the pairs BC3 finals event held at Ariake Arena in Tokyo on Sept 4, the ROK national team comprised of Jeong Ho-won, Kim Han-soo and Choi Ye-jin beat Japan by a single point in an overtime session after a tied 4-4 match.

The win delivered ROK’s ninth straight Paralympic boccia gold medal since 1988.

Following the result, ROK’s President Moon Jae-in congratulated the boccia national team on social media. 

Moon praised the team for “rewriting boccia history” and highlighted how it successfully upheld the country’s top reputation in the Paralympic sporting competition that first began at the 1988 Seoul Games.

BC3 is a Paralympic boccia classification open to people with several different types of disabilities, including cerebral palsy.

After a 3-0 and 1-0 after two ends, Choi Ye-jin and Jeong Ho-won were in prime position to take gold. That was until Japan’s Kawamoto Keisuke and Takahashi Kazuki scored in the third end (4-1) before tying the scores up at the fourth end (4-4) to force a tiebreak.

“I felt like I was going to die,” manager Lim Kwang-taek was quoted as saying by Olympics.com of the tiebreak.

It came down to the last ball with Choi calmly rolling it down the ramp.

The victory marked South Korea’s second gold medal at the Tokyo Paralympics.

The victory handed Jeong, a seasoned athlete in his fourth Paralympics, his third gold medal, and Kim his first gold medal. Choi earned her second gold since her first win at the 2012 London Games.

Xinhua and agencies contributed to the report.