Iraq and India win their first medals, Thailand win their first Gold, Jordan gets their second and China continue to storm ahead.
Two more Asian nations got onto the medal table on day 5 of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. In Table Tennis, India’s Bhavinaben PATEL won Silver in the Women’s Single Class 4, with China’s Ying ZHOU taking the Gold, one of six out of the eight on offer that China won today at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
PATEL is only the second female Indian Paralympian to win a medal and the first Indian to win one in Table Tennis. A second Silver medal won by Nishad KUMAR in the Men’s High Jump T47 and a Bronze by Vinod KUMAR in the Men’s Discus Throw F52 saw India end the day with three medals and on 45th place on the overall medal table.
Iraq’s Garrah TNAIASH took Silver in the Men’s Shot Put F40 and set a new Asian Record in the process with a throw of 11.15m. This was briefly a New World Record but was bettered by 1cm when Denis GNEZDILOV from the Russian Paralympic Committee threw 11.16cm in the final throw of the event to clinch the Gold. TNAIASH was presented with his medal by APC CEO Tarek Souei who first presented him with a medal at the 2009 Tokyo Asian Youth Para Games. Souei commented; “I remember presenting the medal to him when he was a teenager at the Tokyo Asian Youth Para Games. I’ve presented medals to him many times since then but it was an emotional moment to be back in Tokyo where it all started for him and to see him on the podium so many years later.” Bhutan’s Gyeltshen GYELTSHEN also competed in the event, the first athlete to Bhutan to compete in para-athletics at a Paralympic Games. Whilst not amongst the medal contenders, he threw a personal best which is a fantastic achievement for his first Games.
Thailand’s Pongsakorn PAEYO won their first Gold medal of the Games in the Men’s 400m T53 final and set a new World Record of 46.61. Team mate Athiwat PAENG-NUEA won Silver in the Men’s 400m T54 in the tightest of races, he was edged out by USA’s ROMANCHUK by just 0.01 of a second. Both these medals underline the continuing strength of Thailand’s men in the wheelchair racing events.
Japan doubled their Gold medal tally with a second Gold medal for Tomoki SATO at the Olympic Stadium, this time in the Men’s 1500m T52 event and at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, Naohide YAMAGUCHI won Gold in the Men’s 100m Breaststroke SB14 final, setting a new World Record in the process.
It was the final day of Wheelchair Fencing, Hong Kong narrowly missed out on Bronze, losing to Hungary in the Women’s Team Foil. China’s women faced Italy in the Gold medal match and won 45-41 In the men’s event, China faced Great Britain and won 45-38. These results mean that China have taken 11 of the 16 Gold medals on offer in Tokyo, a truly dominating performance.
It was also the final day of Wheelchair Rugby. Japan dusted off their disappointment from yesterday at missing out on the Gold medal match and beat the USA 60-52 to secure the Bronze medal for the second Games in a row.
The Judo competition also ended today and it was I.R. Iran’s day to shine at the Nippon Budokan. They picked up two Gold medals (Vahid NOURI Men’s -90kg and Mohammadreza KHEIROLLAHZADEH Men’s +100kg). Mongolia’s Altantsetseg NYAMAA missed out on the bronze medal in the Women’s +70kg but Kazakhstan picked up a Silver and Korea, Japan and Uzbekistan all won bronze.
At the penultimate day of Powerlifting, Jordan got their second Gold medal of the Games when Abdelkareem KHATTAB won the Men’s -88kg event lifting 231kg which is a new Paralympic Record. China’s YAN Panpan won Gold in the Men’s -97kg ahead of Iran’s Seyedhamed SOLHIPOURAVANJI who won Silver.
China had their most successful day yet in terms of Gold medals won with a total of 16 Gold medals adding to their tally to give them 46 overall. Today the Gold medals came in Archery (1), Athletics (5), Powerlifting (1), Swimming (2), Table Tennis (5) and Wheelchair Fencing (2)
The medal tally at the end of Day 5 for Asian Nations looks like this (rank is the position on the overall medal table):
| Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | ||
| 1 | China | 46 | 29 | 29 | 104 |
| 12 | Japan | 4 | 4 | 10 | 18 |
| 13 | Uzbekistan | 4 | 4 | 4 | 12 |
| 16 | I.R. Iran | 3 | 4 | 0 | 7 |
| 28 | Jordan | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 32 | Kazakhstan | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| 34 | Thailand | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| 40 | Malaysia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 40 | Singapore | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 45 | India | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 49 | Korea | 0 | 1 | 8 | 9 |
| 52 | Indonesia | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 56 | Iraq | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 56 | Vietnam | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 61 | Hong Kong | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 62 | Chinese Tapei | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Tomorrow (Monday 30th August) will see the first medals in Shooting being won and the historic occasion of the Maldives first athlete to compete at a Paralympic Games when Fathimath IBRAHIM takes part in the Women’s 100m T11.
