By Mousumi Mazumdar

Virtus personal Mousumi Mazumdar delivering the para-karate coaches training session on eligibility and classification of II athletes at WKF Para-Karate Championship, Dubai 2021.

The World Para-Karate Championship took place in Dubai from 18^th to 22^nd November.

It was the first Para-Karate championship endorsed by Virtus after the MOU with World Karate Federation (WKF) was signed in 2020.

The initial days of the championship were packed with classifications of athletes and coaching sessions for para-coaches.

On 20th November, WKF in collaboration with Virtus hosted the first training session for the para-karate coaches on the eligibility and classification of athletes with intellectual impairments. The session was attended by coaches from over 40 nations and was a grand success.

Two categories for athletes with an Intellectual Impairment, K21 (II1) and K22 (II2) for both male and female were offered in the competition, where a total of 30 athletes participated.

Female K21 class

Female K21 winners from the left- Karpati Petra (HUN), Kakosy Olivia (HUN), Odin Charlene (FRA) and Sanchez Rosado Lucia (SPA).

Hungarian karatekas dominated the podium as they grabbed the first two spots. Gold medal winner Olivia Kakosy said “I feel very happy. Me and my coach were practicing five days a week including both physical and technical training, performed lot of repetition for Kata. I am very satisfied with my results” . 

Petra Karpati (HUN) claimed the Silver. The Hungarian team coach was seen celebrating the results behind the stage.

Talking to Virtus, the team coach says “We are very happy to be here and we were feeling very proud to see two Hungarians in the finals, it was like a national celebration. I am very proud of my students. This championship was very important for us amidst this Covid-19 pandemic to keep the spirit of competition alive. The next World Championship is in Budapest, so we will practice a lot to show our talent in front of the Hungarian crowd.”

Charlene Odin (FRA) and Rosado Lucia Sanchez (SPA) settles for the bronze medals.

Female K22 class

Salma Alaaeldin Ebrhim (EGY) claimed the championship title in this category.

“I am very happy, I want everyone to be happy with me because I am going to win again hundred times in the future,” Salma told Virtus.

Grabbing the Silver place was Leon Lopez from Spain followed by Nadin Youssef (EGY) and Natalie Olson (CAN) who settled for the Bronze.

(Pictured left)

K22 Winners- (from left) Leon Lopez (ESP), Salma Alaaeldin (EGY), Nadin Youssef (EGY) and Natalie Olson (CAN).

Male K21 Class

K21 winners-( from left) Moustafa Hasan (EGY), Ruiz Carlos Huertas (ESP), Albert Singer (GER) and Antonio Pereira (POR)

Ruiz Carlos Huertas from Spain stayed undefeated and surfaced as the champion of this class. Moustafa

Hassan added Silver to the Egyptian’s medal tally.

Talking to Virtus, Moustafa’s mother said “I am very happy. Moustafa was very close to be the winner but I am still happy that he got silver. We started taking him for the Karate practice since he was five years old. We found very good coaches there and everyone in the coaching centre supported and helped him al lot to be a champion today.”

Albert Singer from Germany and Antonio Pereira from Portugal settled for the Bronze medals and were seen celebrating their success with their respective teams.

Male K22 winners (from left)- Mattia Allesine (ITA), Ahmed Elbeltagy (EGY), Azevedo Joao (POR) and Marvin Noeltge (GER).

Male K22 class

Once again the Egyptians stayed on top of the podium as Ahmed Elbeltagy grabbed the Gold. Finishing at the second place was Mattia Allesina from Italy.

“It’s a big big pleasure for me to win my first medal. The Egyptian player was very strong, but it’s okay, we got the second place so I am happy“, Mattia tells Virtus.

Azevedo Joao (POR) and Marvin Noeltge (GER) were awarded the Bronze medals in this category.

Full results available on WKF website.

By Mousumi Mazumdar (First published on IPC website on 06 Nov 2021) 

World and Paralympic records broken by athletes with intellectual impairments across three sports.

Breanna Clark celebrates after winning Tokyo 2020 gold ⒸGetty Images

A total of 161 athletes competed at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games in the intellectual impairment class events across three different sports – Para table tennis class 11, Para swimming S14, SB14, SM14 and Para athletics T20, F20.

These events saw many debutant athletes, going home as proud Paralympians. At Tokyo, 90 male and 71 female athletes participated.

Amidst the global pandemic, it was a challenge for many of the 90 Virtus Member Nations to field a team due to several restrictions.

Marc Truffaut, President of Virtus (World Intellectual Impairment Sport), said: “We are very proud of every athlete with an intellectual impairment who participated at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. I was impressed to see outstanding performance by many new Paralympians across all three sports.”

Most Decorated Athletes

Male category:

Reece Dunn from Great Britain in his Paralympic debut, Dunn claimed three gold with respective World records, one silver, and one bronze.
“I’ve loved it, every single second of it. I swam really well so that is just a bonus. It’s been great being here and I have really enjoyed myself,” said Dunn.
Female category:
Valeriia Shabalina from Russia with three golds, one silver and also set a new World record in the process.

Swimming Highlights 

Fifty six per cent of the athletes competed in swimming S14 and were vying for the 33 Paralympic medals up or grabs in six events: men’s and women’s 100m butterfly, 100m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, 200m freestyle, 200m individual medley and the 4×100 mixed freestyle relay. The events were dominated by the debutants in male and female categories.

Paralympic records were broken consecutively in many heats and new World and Paralympic records set in eight out of 11 events for the S14 class.

1. Men’s 100m butterfly: Gabriel Bandeira (Brazil) – New Paralympic record with a time of 54.76.

2. Women’s 100m butterfly: Valeriia Shabalina (Russian Paralympic Committee) – New World and Paralympic record with a time of 1:03.59.

3. Men’s 100m backstroke: Benjamin Hance (Australia) – New World and Paralympic record with a time of 57.73.

4. Men’s 100m breaststroke: Naohide Yamaguchi (Japan) – New World and Paralympic record with a time of 1:03.77 sec.

5. Women’s 100m breaststroke: Michelle Alonso Morales (Spain) – New World and Paralympic record with a time of 1:12.02 sec.

6. Men’s 200m individual medley: Reece Dunn (Great Britain) – New World record with a time of 2:08.02 sec.

7. Men’s 200m freestyle: Reece Dunn (Great Britain) – New World record with a time of 1:52.40sec.

8. 4x100m freestyle relay: Great Britain – Jordan Catchpole, Reece Dunn, Jessica-Jane Applegate, Bethany Firth – New World record with a time of 3:40.63sec.

EN ROUTE TO TITLE: Valeriia Shabalina of RPC competes in the swimming women’s 200m individual medley – SM14 final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

Athletics Highlights

Thirty nine athletes participated across four athletics events – men’s and women’s 400m and 1500m T20, and the men’s and women’s long jump and shot put F20.

Gold medalist Poleth Isamar Mendes Sanchez of Ecuador poses after winning gold in the women’s shot put F20 at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. P.C- OIS

New Records set in Four our of Eight events

1. Women’s 400m T20: Breanna Clark (USA) – New World and Paralympic record with the timing of 55.18sec.

2. Women’s shot put F20: Poleth Isamar Mendes Sanchez (Ecuador) – New World and Paralympic record with a distance of 14.39m. Also created history by winning the first Paralympic medal for Ecuador.

3. Men’s shot put F20: Maksym Koval (Ukraine) – New World and Paralympic record with a distance of 17.34m.

4. Women’s long jump F20: Karolina Kucharczyk (Poland) – New Paralympic record with a distance of 6.03m.

Karolina Kucharczyk poses following the medal winning performance.

Kucharczyk said “I promised my grandad that I will win gold in Tokyo, but he died just after my event in Rio, and I couldn’t even attend his funeral (in 2016). I went to his grave with the silver medal and promised to turn it into gold. Over the five years, I have worked very hard to fulfill my promise. I am missing him but I know he was with me during my event.”

Table Tennis Highlights

Twenty athletes from 12 countries competed in the class 11 event. In men’s category, Peter Palos of Hungary became three-time Paralympic champion by claiming the title at Tokyo 2020 against Sam Von Einem from Australia with a score of 3-2.
“I’m still not sure how I managed to win but here I am as a Paralympic champion yet again,” he said after the match. Von Einem took his second Paralympic silver from the Games.
“I was happy that I was able to win a medal and play on the big stage in the final again…Silver is fantastic. It’s been a fantastic week for me. I might take a little break but then I’ll be looking forward to trying to go that one more in Paris 2024,” said von Einem.

Peter Palos in action. P.C- OIS

ITTF World No. 1 Elena Prokofeva won against young French player, Lea Ferney, 3-1 for gold. The 41-year old who debuted at Tokyo 2020 said, “I waited a lot for this day and I just did what I needed to do.”

We are delighted to publish the results of the 5th Para Equestrian Video competition. This years competition attracted more athletes than ever before and enabled the inclusion of a team award.

There was gold medals for Sonia Vilalba (ESP), Alejandro Espejo (ESP) and Anna Beem (USA), whilst both Spain and Germany took the Team awards.

In the youth category GBR were dominant, taking both II1 and II3 categories.

For full details, please visit the results page.

Ribbons and certificates will be despatched to riders in the coming days and Virtus would like to thanks all those athletes and member organisations who supported the competition.

We are pleased to confirm that the 2021 Virtus World Swimming Championships have been rearranged to take place in Montlucon, France in December.

Due to the short entry time available we encourage all member organisations who are planning to enter the event to contact the LOC immediately to notify them of your intention.

The event includes a full programme of II1, II2 and II3 competition and an application has been made for WPS approval.

Full details here.

Virtus has today published its annual report for 2020, a year that was substantially affected by the global pandemic.

Despite the difficulties – including the cancellation of almost the entire competition programme – there were many positive steps taken to support athletes and member organisations, including the launch of the Virtus Strategic Plan for 2021-2024.

Read the full report here.