Participating in its seventh Paralympics, Turkey completed the Tokyo 2020 campaign with a record 15 medals, its highest ever in the Games.
A total of 87 Turkish athletes participated in 13 disciplines at this year’s event. The national athletes clinched two gold medals, four silver, and nine bronze medals in Tokyo, exceeding their previous best haul at the London 2012. Turkey had won one gold, five silver, and four bronze medals in London.
Goalball women’s team defend Rio 2016 gold
Turkey women’s goalball team defended its gold medal from the Rio 2016 in Tokyo.
It defeated Team USA 9-2 in the final to clinch the gold medal on Friday.
Earlier, table tennis player Abdullah Öztürk clinched Turkey’s first gold medal.
Öztürk defeated his South Korean opponent Kim Young-gun 3-1 in the men's singles (Class 4) final.
Öztürk also successfully defended his Rio 2016 title to go down in Turkey’s Paralympics history. He also has a Rio 2016 doubles (Class 4-5) bronze to his name.
In the final at the Tokyo Metropolitan Sports Center, Öztürk defeated the London 2012 gold medalist and Class 4 world champion, Kim.
Three more table tennis players won bronze medals in Tokyo – Nesim Turan in the men’s Class 4 event, Ali Öztürk in the men’s Class 5 event and Kübra Korkut in the women’s Class 7 event.
Historic medal in swimming
Swimmer Sevilay Öztürk won a historic bronze in the Tokyo Paralympics 50-meter backstroke S5 event – Turkey’s first-ever swimming medal in the Games’ history.In addition to table tennis and swimming, Turkey won three medals in archery.
Nihat Türkmenoğlu won silver in the men’s recurve bow W1 event, while Bahattin Hekimoğlu took bronze.
Archers Öznur Cüre and Bülent Korkmaz, in the meantime, won bronze in the mixed recurve bow team event.
Turkey won two more medals each in Judo and taekwondo events.
Judokas Recep Çiftçi and Zeynep Çelik won bronze in the men’s 60-kilogram and women’s 57-kilogram events, respectively.
In taekwondo, Meryem Çavdar won silver in women’s 49-kilogram K44 event, Mahmut Bozteke came third in the men’s 61-kilogram K44 event.
Shooter Ayşegül Pehlivanlar, in the meantime, won silver in the women's 10-meter air pistol P2 event while Besra Duman won bronze in weightlifting 55-kilogram event.