By that time our athletes had won 49 medals: 18 gold, 13 silver, and 18 bronze. And the competition is only halfway through: the 15th Summer Paralympic Games will last in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to September 18.
A unique scenario: Oleksii Fedyna from Ukraine and Firdavsbek Musabekov from Uzbekistan both received gold medals in swimming, 100 meters breaststroke, report the press service of the National Sports Committee for the Disabled of Ukraine. The athletes achieved the same result – 1:04.94, setting a world record. This is the fifth Paralympic gold medal for Fedyna, but it was the first international competition for the Uzbek athlete. Moreover, his gold was the first ever to be won by Uzbekistan’s Paralympians, according to the International Paralympic Committee.
Impressive was the performance of our athletes at 200 meters in complex swimming – the full set of medals was won by Ukrainians! Moreover, all the athletes – Denys Dubrov, Maksym Krypak, and Dmytro Vanzenko – are the Games’ debutants. Denys Dubrov not only won the gold medal in the competition, he also upgraded his own world record with the result of 2:06.87.
For the first time in the Paralympics, Ukrainian team took part in club throw. Our athlete Zoia Ovsii won the silver award in the discipline – she hurled the club at 22.21 meters.
And for the first time in 20 years, Ukrainian athletes won the gold in table tennis. The victor is Natalia Kosmina. There will be more venues in this discipline, and September 13 is going to see a kind of derby match: Ukrainians Antonina Khodzynska and Maryna Lytovchenko will compete for the bronze medal.
In total, in the first four days of the Rio competition, Ukrainian team has set eight world records, five European records, and seven Paralympic records. As summarized by National Sports Committee for the Disabled, on the fourth day of the previous Summer Paralympics, in London 2012, the Ukrainian team had won 33 medals and was ranked fourth. Therefore, we see that the results have improved this time, and we have every reason to expect new records and victories.
