News / Sports

Nemati earns Iran’s 7th gold medal at Rio 2016 Paralympics

Friday, 16 September 2016 1:55 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 16 September 2016 12:41 PM ]

Iranian female Paralympic archer Zahra Nemati poses with her gold medal at the end of the women’s individual recurve competitions at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on September 15, 2016.

Iranian female Paralympic archer Zahra Nemati has exhibited an admirable display of talent and aptitude at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to stand atop the podium and raise the Islamic Republic's total medal count at the highly prestigious international sporting event.

On Thursday, 31-year-old Nemati – also a gold medalist at the 2012 London Paralympics – vied in the women’s individual recurve competitions at the Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí in Rio’s downtown area of Cidade Nova, and triumphed over her Chinese opponent Wu Chunyan 6-4 (24-27-28-27, 22-26, 30-26 and 28-26) in the final encounter to be awarded the top honor.

Polish athlete Milena Olszewska notched up a narrow 6-5 (27-21, 21-18, 25-26, 23-27, 26-26 and 1-0) win over Lee Hwa Sook, a representative from South Korea, and got the bronze medal.

Nemati's gold was Iran's second medal earned on Thursday.

Earlier, in the men's javelin throw F34 division, Iranian pitcher Mohsen Kaedi pocketed the bronze medal with 33.42 meters.

Colombian contestant Mauricio Valencia collected the gold medal with a winning throw of 36.65 meters, and Wang Yanzhang from China scooped the silver with his best effort of 34.15 meters.

Furthermore, Javad Hardani threw the javelin 48.46 meters in the men's F38 category, and grabbed the bronze, handing Iran their third medal of the day.

Iranian pitcher Javad Hardani poses for a photograph with his bronze medal at the end of the javelin throw F38 competitions at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on September 15, 2016.

South Africa’s Reinhardt Hamman snatched the gold medal with 50.96 meters, and 18-year-old Colombian Luis Fernando Lucumi Villegas finished as vice-champion.

Iranian athletes have already taken home 19 medals – seven golds, six silvers and six bronzes – putting the Islamic Republic in the 15th slot of the medal count table so far.

China tops the medal count table with 191 (84 golds, 66 silver, 41 bronze) medals.

Great Britain is second with 108 medals (49 golds, 28 silvers, 31 bronzes), and Ukraine is third with a total of 92 medals (35 golds, 27 silvers and 30 bronzes).

The United States, Australia, Brazil, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Uzbekistan are in the 4th to 10th places respectively.

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