Day-5 (Part 2): Ecuadorian sisters dominate Women’s F20 Shot Put at Tokyo 2020 Paralympics

By Mousumi Mazumdar

The inaugural event in Athletics for athletes with an Intellectual Impairment was pushed off today. It was a very exciting day at the Olympic Stadium where
Ecuadorian sisters dominated the F20 Shot Put field.

Poleth Isamar Mendez Sanchez (ECU) set a new World Record to take GOLD at Tokyo 2020, by covering a distance of 14.39m in her second Paralympic Games. She had finished fifth in Rio 2016.

“I am very happy to win this Gold,” Poleth said.

Anais Mendez ECU competing in the Women’s Athletics Shot Put – F20 at the Olympic Stadium. Photo: OIS/Thomas Lovelock.

“I was very excited to compete alongside my sister, in the event she was my competitor and not my sister but in between the event I was also giving her advice on how to win.”

The Gold medal winner was doubly happy because her sister, Anais Mendez, in her debut to Paralympic Games, was competing in the same event. The newbie, Anais, won the Bronze with 14.06m distance.

Anais Mandez stated, she was very happy and very proud because she didn’t think she was going to win this medal. Having each other during the event, was a warm and supportive feeling for the Anais amidst the pandemic. Both women were seen engaging in short conversations between their events.

“We both are going to dance and celebrate our achievement tonight.” said Anais

Meanwhile, Ukrainian athlete Anastasiia Mysnyk made a hattrick with the Paralympic Silver medal. Anastasiia had won Silver in Rio 2016 and London 2012. She covered a distance of 14.16m. Speaking to Virtus, the athlete expressed how hard it has been to train during the Covid-19.

“I am very happy with the Silver. Me and my coach were working together on this and both are pleased with the result,” said Anastasiia.

“It was really difficult to train during the lockdown due to Covid-19.”

“I was training at home. Sometimes we had to go to the field or forest to train.”

The athletes have positive messages to share with young athletes with intellectual impairment.

The Ecuadorian duo, sisters Poleth, and Anais, says “Never give up, you need to keep fighting and never give up.”

Anastasiia’s message is “In this (COVID) situation, don’t be afraid. Try to get out of home and practice but don’t hurt yourself. Everything will be fine.”

That wraps up day 5. Tomorrow we see more athletics action from Tokyo Olympic Stadium. Follow Virtus on Socials to stay up to date.

Day-3: Swimmers Reece Dunn and Valeriia Shabalina doubled their Gold tally

By Mousumi Mazumdar

Another busy and exciting day at the Tokyo Aquatics and Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium with finals and quarterfinal events taking place at the respective venues.

In Swimming, the Paralympic debut maker- Reece Dunn from Great Britain is becoming quite a sensation at the pool in S14 category.

Gold Medallist Reece Dunn GBR. Photo: OIS/Thomas Lovelock.

Dunn not only won his second Gold medal at Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, he also set a new World Record in 200m Freestyle 1:52.40sec in a neck to neck race with – Gabriel Bandeira Silver (1:52.74sec) from Brazil. Viacheslav Emeliantsev from RPC settled for Bronze by timing 1:55.58sec.

In Women’s category, Valeriia Shabalina (PRC) claimed her second Gold at pool winning the title for S14 200m Freestyle by clocking 2:03.71sec, beating the former Paralympic champion from Great Britain- Bethany Firth who settled for Silver with a timing of 2:03.99sec. Team GBR also took home the Bronze with swimmer and Virtus ambassador, Jessica-Jane Applegate finishing with a time of 2:09.53sec.

In Table Tennis, an extremely thrilling match was seen between Hungarian player Peter Palos and host nation’s ‘Wild Horse’ Asano Takashi. Long rallies of aggressive smashes were delivered by the Japanese player across the table, which were returned gently by the Hungarian. After a nerve wrecking fight Peter secured his place in the semi-finals with 3-2 game. “I feel very tired, the match was very exhausting and I feel so good after winning the match” says the bronze medallist from Rio 2016, Peter Palos.

Asano disappointed after losing to Palos in Qtr Finals. Photo: Kyodo News

Japan’s Asano says he is very sorry to all the people who supported him. “My target was to win a Gold medal this time but could not do so. The opponent (Palos) is like a king in the world of Para Table-Tennis, he won Gold in London, Bronze in Rio so he is very strong and has a very good mental strength. I promise to win a Gold in Paris 2024” says Asano.

On another table, Cuesta Martinez from Spain was seen putting pressure on Sam von Einem from Australia in the initial rounds but the Aussie had a smooth win eventually and moved into quarterfinals with a score of 3-1.

In the third match, Lucas Creange (FRA) stayed undefeated by Takashi Takemori (JPN) and qualified into the semi-finals with a flat win with 3-0 points.

The defending Champion from Rio, Florian vanAcker (BEL)  faced some difficult moves from the Chang Gi Kim, from Korea in the first and third match. However, with the score of 3-1, the Belgian player moved also moves into the Semi-finals.

The Semi-Final matches for both Women’s and Men’s Category will be played tomorrow. Remember to follow Virtus on Social media for regular updates.

DAY-1: Russian Shabalina breaks her own record World Record

By Mousumi Mazumdar

Valeriia Shabalina holds her Gold Medal in S14 100 meter Butterfly at Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Photo: OIS/Joel Marklund

On the first day of competition at the 2020 Paralympic Games, in the Women’s 100m Butterfly S14, Shabalina Valeriia (WR) broke her own WR of 1:03.68 and set a new one for 1:03.59sec. Talking to Virtus, Shabalina says “My hands and legs were shivering just before the event and I was very stressed because it was the most important event of my life, but my coach helped me stay calm. I am happy with my performance now.”

Silver medal winner with a timing of 1:05.48 sec, Paige Leonhardt from Australia said “personally I didn’t execute what I wanted to during the heats, so I really wanted to have a really good and strong race, and that’s what I did and came back with a silver medal. I also got to share the podium with Ruby and I am very proud of her.”

Ruby Storm (AUS) claimed the bronze with a timing of 1:06.50sec. “It was very unexpected, I came third in the heats and was really shocked about that and I came away with a Bronze medal” said the swimmer.

Men’s 100m Butterfly S14

A thrilling start was seen when three swimmers Liam Schluter from AUS in heat 1, Gabriel Bandeira (BRA) heat-2 and Reece Dunn (GBR) recorded Paralympic records in their respective heats but the Brazilian made it to the top of the podium.

Creating a new Paralympic record of 54.76sec, Bandeira grabbed the first S14 class Gold medal from Tokyo 2020.

Gabriel Bandeira (BRA) holds Gold medal for 100 meter Butterfly at Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Photo: OIS/Joel Marklund

Bandeira says “I feel so happy, I trained a lot for this day. In the morning I controlled through the race (heat) and in the finals I just gave it all. I was quite nervous as I wrote down on paper- ‘I will swim very fast’ which helped me a lot.”

World record holder-Reece Dunn had to face defeat and settle for Silver with the timing of 55.99sec while Australian swimmer Benjamin James Hance claimed the bronze with 56.90sec.

Although, Lawrence Sapp from USA could not make it to the podium, the athlete was very excited to make his Paralympic debut. He lead the race until 50m but finished fifth.

Meanwhile Dai Tokarin, the host nation’s champion, ranked second in the World and was expected to give a strong competition to the WR holder Reece Dunn, but was left heartbroken when he could not qualify for the 100m Butterfly Finals with the timing of 58.44sec.

Virtus, the International Federation for sport for athletes with intellectual impairments, has announced that Austria will host the 2022 Virtus World Skiing Championship.

The event, hosted by Osterreichischer Behindertensportverband (Virtus member organization in Austria) takes place between 15th to 19th March 2022 at Seefeld, Austria. The event was previously scheduled to take place in 2021 but was postponed due to the ongoing pandemic.

The organizing committee comprises of key personnel from the LOC of 2019 International Ski Federation (FSI) Nordic World Championship in Seefeld along with experience of hosting FIS Nordic triple and wishes to set a new benchmark for this event.

Marc Truffaut, Virtus President said “I would like to congratulate Virtus Austria for winning the bid to host this event. It was unfortunate that we had to postpone this event from 2021 to 2022, however I am very positive that this time we will come back stronger. With the expertise of our LOC in organizing FIS events in 2019, this event will undoubtably will be one of the spectacular skiing event Virtus members have witnessed before.”

Former winner of the Virtus Sportswomen of the Year, Heidi Mackowitz will be skiing on home snow. Previously, at an unfortunate accident during training in 2013, Heidi broke her femur bone in five different places but after fighting against all odds and people’s perceptions, Heidi made a comeback on to the slopes in 2016 and won 2nd and 3rd place at the 2016 Virtus World Skiing Championship in Poland.

Virtus wishes all the athletes a very good luck.