The athletics curriculum shows that the sport has brought the most medals to Brazil in the history of the Paralympic Games. This Saturday (31), the athletes of the sport lived up to their fame and, in one fell swoop, added five more to this tally, reaching a total of 180.
The highlight of the second day of athletics competitions was the 400-meter race in the T47 class, for athletes with upper limb disabilities. Fernanda Yara from Pará was the big winner, with a time of 56.74 seconds, and Maria Clara Augusto from Rio Grande do Norte took the bronze, recording a time of 57.20 seconds.
Fernanda Yara, 38, has a unique trajectory within the Paralympic Games. This is her third participation in her career, but with a long gap of 13 years between the first and second – Beijing 2008 and Tokyo, in 2021. She is coming off a two-time world championship in this same event, in Paris, in 2023 and in Kobe, Japan, this year.
Fernanda has a congenital malformation in her left arm, just below the elbow. Maria Clara, who has a very similar disability, is only 20 years old and is participating in the Paralympic Games for the first time. Both Fernanda and Maria Clara achieved unprecedented Paralympic podium finishes.
Earlier, in the final of the women’s 400-meter dash, T11 class (blind athletes), Thalita Simplício won her fifth Paralympic medal of her career by winning silver, with a time of 57.21.
In the final of the 100-meter T12 (athletes with low vision), Joeferson Marinho took bronze with a time of 10.84. The 25-year-old athlete won the first Paralympic medal of his career.
To close out Brazil’s winning afternoon/evening in Paris, the longest event ended with Cicero Nobre taking bronze in the F57 class javelin throw (athletes compete seated). He recorded 49.46m. Nobre had already achieved the same result in this event in Tokyo.
Swimming
Right after athletics, swimming is the biggest source of medals for Brazil at the Games. After the golds of Carol Santiago and Gabriel Araújo, the one who closed Saturday with a golden key – or silver – for the country was Wendell Belarmino.
Wendell Belarmino came second in the 50-meter freestyle event, class S11. Photo by Silvio Ávila/CPB
The swimmer from Brasilia came in second place in the 50-meter freestyle event, class S11, for athletes with visual impairments. Belarmino – who already had three medals under his belt, all won in Tokyo – had exactly the same time as the Chinese Dongdong Hua (26s11).
Both took silver because the Japanese Keiichi Kimura was the gold medalist, with a time of 25s98. In the same event, another Brazilian, Matheus Rheine, finished eighth.
Boosted by good results in athletics and swimming, Brazil finished the third day of competition in third place in the medal table, with 23 podiums, including eight gold medals, three silver and twelve bronze. Only China and Great Britain are ahead.
