First medal for Qatar, first Gold for Indonesia; Jordon, Malaysia and India add to Gold tally, I.R. Iran’s men win Sitting Volleyball again and Kunieda wins final Tennis Gold medal for Japan
On the penultimate day of Athletics competition, the Men’s Shot Put F34 final at the Olympic Stadium provided joy for two West Asia nations when Jordan’s HINDI Ahmed won Gold with a World Record throw of 12.25m. Qatar’s FIQI Abdulrahman Abdulqadir threw a season’s best to take the Bronze medal and win his country’s first medal of the Tokyo Games. The UAE also picked up another medal when ALHAMMADI Mohammed took Silver in the Men’s 800m T34 ahead of China’s YANG Wang in Bronze. In the evening session, Malaysia’s ROMLY Abdul Latif won Gold in the Men’s Long Jump T20, doubling the Gold medal tally for his home country.
India was celebrating again when Manish NARWAL took the Gold and SINGHRAJ the Silver in the Men’s Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 final meaning that India have now won five medals at the Asaka Shooting Range. The final shooting medals will be contested tomorrow.
In the Sitting Volleyball, I.R.Iran’s Men’s team were aiming for their seventh Paralympic Gold medal in their ninth straight Paralympic final. Up against the RPC. They took the first two sets but RPC fought back to take the third set, the first time the Iranian’s had lost a set at these Games. They composed themselves at the break between sets and stormed to a 5-0 lead. The RPC responded but Iran switched up a gear to go to 20-10 before the RPC pulled it back to 21-14. Iran sealed the final set 25-17 and won the match 3-1. There were emotional scenes as the Iranian men celebrated their successful defence of their Rio Gold medal.
Going into the Women’s Wheelchair Basketball gold medal match, China’s women were guaranteed an historic first medal in the sport for their country but which colour would it be? They started brightly taking the first quarter 12-9 but then the Rio bronze medallists the Netherlands showed their experience and ran out 50-31 winners.
At the Wheelchair Tennis, the final day saw Japan’s KAMIJI/OHTANI beat China’s WANG/ZHU 6-2, 7-6 to win the Women’s Doubles Bronze medal. Japan’s final medal was won by Shingo KUNIEDA in the Men’s Singles. He came on court with a look of steely determination and put on a truly dominant display to beat his Dutch opponent EGBERINK 6-1, 6-2. The tears of joy flowed then for the three-time Paralympic champion.
The final Boccia medals in the Team and Pairs events were decided today. Hong Kong’s BC3 pair HO and TSE were the first Asian athlete to take to the court in the Bronze medal match but the Greek team were too strong for them, winning 0-7. Japan were next on court in the BC1/BC2 Team Bronze medal match up against Portugal. They went 0-2 down after the first two ends but strong third and fourth ends saw them edge ahead 3-2 with two ends left to play. The Portuguese team won the fifth end by 1 to leave scores level as they went into a tense final end but it was Japan who came out on top to win the Bronze medal 4-3. The three Gold medal matches were nearly an all Asian affair with only Slovakia stopping all six medals coming to Asia. They beat Hong Kong 3-2 in the BC4 Pairs match. The Gold medal match in the BC3 Pairs event between Japan and Korea was all square 4-4 after four ends and so went to a tie break with Korea emerging victorious to get the Gold medal. Last on court was the BC1/BC2 Team Gold medal match between China and Thailand. China won the first two ends but Thailand pulled it back and ended up 8-2 winners in the end.
In Badminton, the dominance of Asian nations was shown by the fact that in all 14 medal matches contested today, only three of the possible 28 slots were taken by teams outside of the continent with tomorrow’s finals a similar story. It was Malaysia’s CHEAH Liek Hou who made history by winning the first Badminton medal to be awarded at a Paralympic Games when he beat Indonesia’s DHEVA Anrimusthi 2-0 in the Men’s Singles SU5 match. For the women it was Japan’s SATOMI Sarina who came out on top 2-1 in the Gold medal match in the Women’s Singles WH1 against Thailand’s POOKKHAM Sujirat. In the next Gold medal match it was China’s turn to grab the Gold when YANG Quixian beat Japan’s SUZUKI Ayako 2-0 in the Women’s Singles SU5 final.
It was then India’s turn to top the podium in the Men’s SL3 final when BHAGAT Pramod beat GBR 2-0. India ‘s SARKAR Manoj also got the Bronze in this event. China were guaranteed a Gold medal in the Women’s Singles WH2 event when LIU Yutong beat XU Tingting 2-0. Then it was Indonesia’s LEANI RAKTRI Oktila’s first chance of Gold when she competed with KHALIMATUS Sadiyah against China’s CHENG and MA in the women’s Doubles SL3-SU5 event. The Indonesian pair won 2-0 giving Leani Raktri her and Indonesia’s first gold medal of the Games. She will try for another two in tomorrow’s Women’s Singles and Mixed Doubles finals. China’s QU Zimo won the final Gold medal of the day in the Men’s Singles WH1 after Korea’s LEE Sam Seop retired. Expect more fantastic performances from Asian shuttlers tomorrow.
The final Taekwondo medals were awarded in the sport making its Paralympic debut. Uzbekistan’s NAIMOVA Guljonoy was up against Brazil’s BEZERRA in the Women’s K44 +58kg final. She won the contest 8-4 and clinched the Gold medal. In the Men’s K44 +75kg I.R.Iran’s AZIZIAGHDAM Asghar beat Croatia’s MUKULIC Ivan 12-10.
In Football 5-a-side, China were hoping to get the Bronze medal that they missed out on in Rio. Moroccan striker SNISLA had other ideas and scored four goals for his country to leave the Chinese team empty handed once more.
The final Archery medals were won today with Asian nations facing off in the Bronze medal match of the Mixed Team Recurve. China’s WU and ZHAO beat Iran’s NEMATI and RAHIMI 6-2.
At the end of the penultimate day of sport, the Asian medal table looks like this:
| Day 11 | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | |
| 1 | China | 98 | 57 | 50 | 200 |
| 12 | I.R. Iran | 12 | 11 | 1 | 24 |
| 15 | Japan | 9 | 14 | 19 | 42 |
| 16 | Uzbekistan | 8 | 5 | 6 | 19 |
| 24 | Thailand | 5 | 5 | 7 | 17 |
| 26 | India | 4 | 7 | 6 | 17 |
| 35 | Jordan | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| 39 | Malaysia | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| 41 | Korea | 2 | 8 | 12 | 22 |
| 47 | Singapore | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 51 | Kazakhstan | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| 53 | Indonesia | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| 54 | UAE | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 57 | Sri Lanka | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 59 | Mongolia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 59 | Pakistan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 69 | Hong Kong | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 69 | Iraq | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 71 | Kuwait | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 75 | Vietnam | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 78 | Saudi Arabia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 78 | Oman | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 78 | Qatar | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 78 | Chinese Taipei | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Tomorrow’s Closing Ceremony will be preceded by Athletics, Badminton and Shooting finals as well as the Women’s Sitting Volleyball final with China facing the USA and Japan’s men aiming for an historic Gold medal in the Wheelchair Basketball.
