Paralympic Rio 2016 closes ~ Iranian cyclist dies in an accident !

How do you react when denied a chance ? – Organise one is the answer – Tamil Nadu Premier League ended yesterday night – more on that in a later post !

Rio 2016 Paralympic Games was brought to a close inside a packed Maracana Stadium on Sunday (18.9.2016) evening.   The Paralympic Games is a major international multi-sport event involving athletes with a range of disabilities, including impaired muscle power, impaired passive range of movement, limb deficiency, leg length difference, short stature, hypertonia, ataxia, athetosis, vision impairment and intellectual impairment. All Paralympic Games are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).  The Paralympic Games are organized in parallel with the Olympic Games.

Singers, dancers and fireworks lit up the iconic stadium before tributes were paid to Iranian cyclist Bahman Golbarnezhad, who died on Saturday. Sir Philip Craven, International Paralympic Committee president, said the movement was "united in grief". Referring to the success of the Games, Craven said the Rio Paralympics were "uniquely Brazilian and wondrous". "The Brazil we love so much has shown the world what it can do. This celebration started with a dream. It was 20 years in the making. Many thought it was impossible. But not for Rio and Brazil."The impossible happened. Brazilians never give up." – he added.

The impairments are classified. All impairment groups can compete in athletics but a system of letters and numbers is used to distinguish each class. For example, a letter F is for field athletes, T represents those who compete on the track, and the number shown refers to their impairment. 11-13: Track and field athletes who are visually impaired. Blind athletes compete in class 11, wear compulsory blindfolds and run with a guide runner. Athletes in class 12 are visually impaired but running with a guide is optional. 42-47: Track and field amputees. In classes 42-44 the legs are affected and in class 45-47 the arms are affected. Athletes in these classes compete standing and do not use a wheelchair. T51-54: Wheelchair track athletes. Athletes in class 51-52 are affected in both lower and upper limbs. T53 athletes have fully functioning arms but have no trunk function at all, while T54 athletes have partial trunk and leg functions.

It was gloomy - Bahman Golbarnezhad, a 48-year-old Iranian cyclist, died after crashing during a race in Rio de Janiero on Saturday. The Paralympian was cycling on a mountainous stretch of the road race at the time of the crash, according to a statement from the International Paralympic Committee. "The athlete received treatment at the scene and was in the process of being taken to the athlete hospital when he suffered a cardiac arrest. The ambulance then diverted to the nearby Unimed Rio Hospital in Barra where he passed away soon after arrival," it said. Golbarnezhad "also participated at the London 2012 Paralympic Games and took up the sport in 2002," the committee said.

The 48-year-old from Shiraz lost control on a descent 35km into the race, at 10.35am local time, the head of Iran’s national Paralympic committee (NPC) said.  Witness statements were being taken in an attempt to ascertain whether any other rider was involved and the exact circumstances of the accident. The crash happened at a right-hand bend on Avenida Estado da Guanabara on the hilly Grumari circuit, a spokesman for the Rio 2016 organising committee said. Golbarnezhad received immediate medical attention and initially presented good vital signs, despite having sustained a head injury and caused significant damage to his cycling helmet, the spokesman added. However, his condition deteriorated after he was transferred to an ambulance. Golbarnezhad died following a second cardiac arrest – the first happened as he was transferred into the ambulance – on arrival at Unimed Rio hospital in Barra at 11.50am local time on Saturday.

Pic credit : npr.org.

Rio 2016, which took cost-cutting measures in the implementation of the Paralympics, and the IPC insisted none of the cuts affected the athletes, competitions or safety. Craven added that the ambulance was staffed by a doctor, in addition to paramedics. “Everything was done to try to save Bahman’s life,” he said. The road races began at Pontal and included the Grumari circuit incorporated in the Rio Olympics road races. The Vista Chinesa circuit – which included a treacherous descent where Holland’s Annemiek van Vleuten crashed into the kerb, sustaining heavy concussion – was not part of the Paralympic course.

Cyclist Golbarnezhad's death is the first in competition at a summer Olympics or Paralympics since Danish cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen in the 100km team time trial at the 1960 Rome Olympics. "Tonight is a celebration of the last 12 days of sport but it's also a very sombre occasion following Saturday's extremely tragic events," Craven said, upon opening his speech.

India capped off a successful Paralympic Games campaign in Rio de Janeiro by procuring their best ever haul of four medals, including two golds and a silver and bronze medal apiece. Mariyappan Thangavelu and Varun Singh Bhati secured India two medals in the high jump category. Thangavelu created history by winning a gold medal in the men's high jump T-42 event, with a leap of 1.89 metres, thereby putting his Periyavadagampatti village in Tamil Nadu's Salem district on the world map. Varun Singh Bhati, who jumped a personal best of 1.86 metres to clinch bronze in the men's high jump T-42 event, faced a lot of hardships before achieving the historic feat. The 21-year-old, who trains at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Bengaluru, is suffering from a T-42 disability.   A historic silver medal ensured Deepa Malik scripted history; she won second place in the women's shotput F53 event at the Rio Paralympics on Monday, with a personal best throw of 4.61m. Then came Devendra Jhajhariya, India's sole gold medalist at the Paralympics prior to 2016. Jhajhariya went on to break his own world record and made the javelin gold medal his own. "If you have the willpower then nothing is impossible in this world. I won my first paralympics medal in 2004, and now, after 12 years, it is just the dedication and hardwork which paid off," Jhajhariya, who is a coach with the Gandhinagar centre of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), told IANS from Rio after his victory on Wednesday.

With four medals and three fourth-place finishes, India capped off a memorable campaign featuring three personal bests at the Rio Paralympics 2016. Were you following ~ I shamelessly confess that I was following TNPL more than Paralympics.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

19^th Sept. 2016.