Rio will close a Paralympic Games that many feared would be a fiasco but which turned into a triumph, though marred in the final hours by the death of an Iranian cyclist.
 Eleven days of competition where China dominated the medals table, followed by Britain, Ukraine and the United States, will end with the last few events, including marathons and wheelchair rugby.
 At the closing ceremony in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana football stadium, Brazilian officials will officially hand over to Tokyo for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
 The upbeat mood in Rio, however, was darkened late on Saturday by the death of Iranian cyclist Bahman Golbarnezhad, 48 (pic above). The athlete, who wore a prosthesis on his left leg, fell during a mountainous descent in the road race and died before he could be treated in hospital.
 Nevertheless, Rio is expected to put on a dazzling show at the Maracana, featuring Brazil’s rich music and dance culture to celebrate a far better Paralympics than many had believed possible. “This will be a time for celebration..., a final act,” said the ceremony’s producer Flavio Machado, who promised “many Brazilian musicians on stage.”
 The Japanese say that the Rio Games have set a high standard for them to follow. “We have been impressed by our experience across both the Olympic and Paralympic Games and inspired by the passion of the Carioca,” said Toshiro Muto, CEO of the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee, referring to Rio residents by their nickname.
 There had been fears that this wouldn’t be at all how the Rio Games ended. Even before they started, the Rio organizers’ woeful finances in the wake of the August Olympics and a stunning lack of interest in tickets raised fears of failure.
 Then on the eve of the Paralympics, the Brazilian Senate pushed president Dilma Rousseff out of office in a bitter impeachment battle that left the country more distracted than ever. Her replacement and fierce enemy Michel Temer came to the opening ceremony on September 7 and was booed by the crowd.
 There were also international tensions over a ban imposed by the International Paralympic Committee on the entire Russian team because of alleged state doping.
 But then things got better. The opening ceremony moved viewers with its exuberant set design and the unrestrained joy of the parading athletes. And while the stadiums and arenas were initially empty, the rhythm soon picked up, with noisy and passionate Brazilian fans providing world class atmosphere.
 By the end, officials said, they had sold 2.1 million tickets—less than London in 2012 but more than Beijing four years earlier.
 Part of that success, however, was due to many tickets being sold for as little as three dollars—or given to school children in an international fill the seats campaign.
 The gap between the Olympic and Paralympic performances is gradually blurring with disabled athletes breaking records after records in Rio. Among the stars were Brazil’s swimmer Daniel Dias who added four golds, three silvers and two bronzes to his existing medal haul from Beijing and London which has won him descriptions as the Michael Phelps of the Paralympics.
 There was amazement in the 1,500m track race when Algeria’s Abdellatif Baka set a new record that was actually faster than the winning time by Olympic gold medalist Matthew Centrowitz in the same stadium a month earlier. However, Centrowitz won in what was by Olympic standards a near record slow race, meaning Baka’s outstanding time was of mostly symbolic significance.
 Once more it was China that dominated overall, with almost 100 medals more than its nearest rival, Britain, which held a comfortable second place. The big country missing in the top section of the standings, however, was Russia which during the London Games won 102 medals, including 36 golds.


Cyclist's death casts pall of gloom at Games

An Iranian Paralympic cyclist died on Saturday after an accident in the road race on the penultimate day of the Rio Games. Bahman Golbarnezhad, 48, fell during the event and died of his injuries despite an attempt to take him to the hospital for treatment, officials said.
“He unfortunately passed away,” International Paralympic Committee (IPC) spokesman Craig Spence said. Golbarnezhad’s accident occurred during the more than two-hour C4-5 road race for athletes with varying disabilities but still able to bicycle. He was in the first section of a mountainous descent when he fell.
“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 IPC said in a statement. “The ambulance then diverted to the nearby Unimed Rio Hospital in Barra where he passed away soon after arrival.”
President Hassan Rouhani in a tweet in Farsi said “the demise of our dear cyclist Bahman Golbarnezhad immersed us all in deep sorrow. Rest in peace.”
Paralympic officials said Golbarnezhad’s family in Iran had been informed and the Iranian team was also told the news during a meeting at the Athletes’ Village.
The cyclist, who wore a prosthesis on his left leg, took up the sport in 2002 and competed at the London 2012 Paralympics.
“This is truly heart-breaking news,” IPC president Philip Craven said. “The Paralympic family is united in grief at this horrendous tragedy, which casts a shadow over what have been great Paralympic Games here in Rio.”
Brazil’s top official for the Rio Olympics and Paralympics, Carlos Nuzman, called it “very sad news for sport and for the Paralympic movement. Our hearts and prayers are with Bahman’s family, his teammates and all the people of Iran”.
The Iranian flag was lowered to half-mast in the Paralympic Village, while the Paralympic flag was to be at half-mast during yesterday’s sitting volleyball gold-medal match between Iran and Bosnia and Herzegovina. A minute of silence will be held during the closing ceremony.
“This is a very difficult situation. We hope we can repatriate his body to his family soon,” state television website IRIB quoted the head of Iran’s Paralympic committee, Masoud Ashrafi, as saying. Golbarnezhad is survived by a wife and a son, he added.
The British Paralympic team tweeted: “We are devastated by the news of Bahman Golbarnezhad’s passing. Our thoughts are with our friends and colleagues from NPC Iran.”

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