Spain concluded the Tokyo Paralympic Games with 36 medals, five more than those achieved in Rio de Janeiro, also obtaining 131 diplomas, which represents a total of 167 finalist positions.
The swimming pool was once again the largest medal fishing ground for Spanish athletes with 14 medals. The most prominent was the Burgos Marta Fernandez, which, in its debut in a Games, left with three medals, one of each color.
Apart from that of Martha, the other gold in the Aquatic Center went to the Canary Islands Michelle alonso, championed at the opening ceremony, which endorsed the dominance that she has held since 2012 in the 100 meters breaststroke, class SB14 for intellectual disabilities, also winning with a world record.
Catalan swimmers Toni Ponce, Nuria Marqués and Sarai Gascó took the podium twice in Tokyon, all trained by Jaume marcéwhile the medal stand was stepped on once Íñigo Llopis, silver in 100 back; Oscar Salguero, silver in 100 fathoms, and Miguel Luque, silver in 50 fathoms.
What’s more, Teresa Perales, who arrived at the Japanese event reduced by a dislocation in a shoulder that he suffered at the European Championship in Madeira in May, he hung the twenty-seventh Paralympic medal of his sports career by winning silver in the 50 back.
ATHLETICS
One of the revelations at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium was Adiaratou Iglesias, who became the fastest athlete with mild visual impairment in the world by winning the 100 meters and the silver in the 400.
Kim lopez retained his title of Paralympic champion in shot put and Gerard Download in the 400 meters, this time with William Red as a guide. The other gold medal went to the debutant Yassine Ouhdadi in the 5,000 meters.
The other Spanish athletes who won medals in Tokyo were the long jumpers Sara Martinez and Ivan Cano (silver), shotgun Miriam Martinez (silver) and the javelin thrower Hector Cabrera (bronze).
CYCLING ON TRACK AND ROUTE
Cycling improved its performance in Rio 2016 with a harvest of six medals to rank eleventh in the country rankings for this sport, both on the track and on the road.
At the Fuji Velodrome, Alfonso Cabello pedaled to gold in the kilometer, including a world record (1: 01.557), and also contributed to the bronze in team speed along with Ricardo Ten (who has six other Paralympic metals in his record when he was a swimmer) and Pablo Jaramillo.
In road tests, held at the Fuji International Circuit and its surroundings, the rookie stood out Sergio Garrote with two medals (gold in time trial and bronze in route). The tandem formed by Christian venge and Noel Martin (bronze in time trial) and the ‘handbiker’ Luis Miguel Garcia–Marquina (bronze in time trial).
TRIATHLON, JUDO, TABLE AND SHOOTING TENNIS
The triathlon, apart from improving participation with seven athletes, contributed four medals to the Spanish team in Tokyo with the gold of Susana rodriguez and your guide Sara loehr, the silver of Hector Catalá and your guide Gustavo Rodriguez and the bronzes of Alejandro Sánchez Palomero and Eva Moral.
Judo once again placed a representative on the podium after returning from Rio 2016, thanks to the silver of Sergio Ibanez.
Table tennis also brought the bronze for teams of Alvaro Valera and Jordi Morales while on the last day came the bronze of the Galician shooter Juan Antonio Saavedra.
ANOTHER SPORTS
Spain contributed representatives in nine other sports, remaining at the gates of the medals.
The men’s wheelchair basketball team finished fourth after losing the bronze medal match against Great Britain, while the women’s team, in their first appearance on their own merits at a Games, achieved a diploma by finishing eighth on their return. to some Games after Barcelona’92, when he competed as host.
Rowing, Javier Reja was fourth in the PR1 class male individual boat and the PR3Mix4 + mixed team, formed by the helmsman Estíbaliz Armendariz and the rowers Josefa Benitez, Enrique Floriano, Jorge Pineda and Veronica Rodriguez, finished eleventh.
In weightlifting, Loida Zabala added her fourth Paralympic diploma by being sixth in -50 kilos and Montse Alcoba finished seventh at -79 kilos.
The soccer-5 team for the blind repeated sixth place in Rio 2016 and in wheelchair tennis Spain was closer than ever to the medals in the men’s box because Dani caverzaschi reached the quarterfinals and achieved a historic diploma.
The first Paralympic diplomas in canoeing were also historic with the sixth place in Higinio Rivero in 200 meters by canoe VL2 and the seventh of Juan Antonio Valle placeholder image in 200 meters by kayak KL3.
Without a medal and without a diploma they stayed Alex Vidal in taekwondo, which fell in the playoffs to enter the quarterfinals, and Carmen Rubio in archery, she was eliminated in the round of 16 in compound bow.
THE MEDALLION
As was the case in Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016, China swept the medal table, with a total of 207 metals (96 golds, 60 silvers and 51 bronzes), followed by Great Britain with 124 medals (41, 38 and 45) and the United States with 104 metals (37, 36 and 31).
With 36 medals Spain improves its performance in Rio 2016, where it achieved 31. The final place in the medal table has been fifteenth although the Spanish team has placed thirteenth in total number of medals.
Of the 36 Spanish metals, 15 came in women’s events and the remaining 21 were achieved by men, which means that women won 41 percent of the Spanish team’s medals, despite being 33% of the components of the delegation.
As for the generational change, it should be noted that of the 29 athletes who have won medals, 11 are debutants in the Paralympic Games, while 18 have already participated on more than one occasion.