The 14th Summer Paralympic Games are taking place in London from August 29 through September 9. Ukraine is represented by 155 athletes in 12 sports (the total number of the competition participants is 4,200).
After five days of competition Ukraine ranks fourth in the team placing after China, Great Britain, and Australia. Ukrainian athletes won 13 gold, 8 silver, and 12 bronze medals. Thanks to the effort of the National Committee for Disabled Sports Ukraine got back the golden medal won by Maria Pomazan in shot-put. The gold was given to the Chinese athlete and the Paralympic Committee explained this by the failure of the electronic system that calculates points.
“The long stressful day ended with good news – Maria Pomazan got to keep her gold medal. Valerii Sushkevych, president of the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee with an extraordinary effort managed to defend the right of the Ukrainian athlete to have the award. Later it became known that the International Paralympic Committee decided to award the gold medal also to the athlete from China,” reported Natalia Harach, press attache of the Ukrainian Committee for Disabled Sports.
Every day of competition brought moments of pride for the Ukrainian team. On the first day of the Paralympics our team won eight medals: two gold, two silver, and four bronze. The first gold for Ukrainian team was gained by judoist Davyd Khorava and swimmer Natalia Prolohaieva. Another two Ukrainian swimmers won silver: Kateryna Istomina – for women 100m butterfly, Yevhen Bohodaiko – for men’s 100m backstroke. Ukrainian swimmers Serhii Klipper (men’s 400m freestyle) and Dmytro Vynohradets (men’s 50m breaststroke) won bronze. Yulia Halynska and Natalia Nikolaichyk also won two bronze medals.
On August 31 – the second day of competition, the Ukrainian Paralympic team won two gold medals in judo. The winners were Dmytro Solovei (trained at Kyiv City Center “Invasport”) and Oleksandr Kosinov (trained at Rivne Oblast Center “Invasport”). Swimmer Yevhen Bohodaiko won silver at the distance of 50m butterfly. That day Maria Pomazan won her gold medal.
On the third day of the competition – September 1, Ukrainian Paralympic team pleased its fans with six awards: three gold, one silver, and two bronze medals. That day gold went to Vasyl Kovalchuk (shooting), Andrii Kalyna (swimming), and Yurii Tsaruk (athletics). Oksana Khrul won silver in swimming, and bronze went to Inna Stryzhak (athletics) and Oleksii Fedyna (swimming).
During the fourth day of competition – September 2, Ukrainian team at the Paralympic Games won the greatest number of medals – ten. Maria Pomazan broke the record she had set THE DAY before and won gold medal again. Gold medals also went to Yevhen Bohodaiko (swimming, 200m), Dmytro Zelinsky (men’s 100m backstroke), and Anna Lysenko (rowing). Vasyl Lishchynsky (men’s discus throw) and Dmytro Vynohradets (swimming, 150m Ind. Medley) won silver medals. Bronze went to Roman Pavliuk (athletics, men’s 100m), Oksana Botorchuk (athletics, women’s 100m), Viktor Smyrnov (swimming, men’s 100m backstroke), and Mykhailo Popov (tennis).
On September 3 the Paralympic day opened regatta: Ukrainian rowing team competed for the first place. Ukrainian athletes also competed in bullet shooting (Vasyl Kovalchuk), swimming, archery, track and field, sitting volleyball (Ukrainian team played against the Netherlands), and table tennis. Yurii Shchepansky, Maksym Nikolenko, and Mykhailo Popov participated in single.
