Stefano Raimondi has won a gold medal in the men’s 100m freestyle S10 at the Paris Paralympics, ahead of Australia’s Rowan Crothers and Thomas Gallagher.
Raimondi claimed his second gold of the competition in the men’s 100m freestyle S10, after winning the 100m breaststroke SB9 earlier in the meet.
“It was so hard the last 25 metres, but when I swam I thought of my son, and this gave me lots of energy to arrive at the end. My son is six months old and he arrived today, so I am very happy,” said Raimondi.
Simone Baarlam finished in fifth position.
World record and Gold in the men’s discus
Rigivan Ganeshamoorthy won a superb gold in the Men’s Discus Throw – F52 category.
Not only did the man from the Anthropos Civitanova Marche club win with a world record, but he broke the world record THREE TIMES in the competition. The first record breaking throw measured 25.48m, followed by 25.80m, and then his final world record of 27.06m with his fifth throw.
Current medal table
Italy currently has a total of 20 medals, sitting 8th in the table. The five medals since Sunday morning, other than Raimondi’s and Ganeshamoorthy’s golds, were won in the following disciplines.
Archery – The W1 Mixed Team of Daila Dameno and Paolo Tonon took bronze, beating the South Korean team 134-132.
Para triathlon – Silver to Veronica Yoko Plebani in the women’s individual PTS2. She finished in a time of 1:15:37, behind American Danz who finished in 1:14:31
Swimming –Alessia Scortechini clinched bronze in the women’s 100m freestyle S10 in Paris.
The Italian swimmer ended the competition in 1:01.02, behind France’s Emeline Pierre, gold with 1:00.49 and Canada’s Aurelie Rivard, silver with 1:00.82.
Perini launching second appeal over disqualification
Giacomo Perini, who was disqualified on Sunday after winning a bronze medal in the PR1 men’s single sculls at the Paralympics for allegedly using his cell phone, said he had forgotten it in a bag on the boat and never used it.
“The phone wasn’t used, they just need to check”, he told RaiSport. He said he had last used it to send messages before training and to speak to his psychologist the night before the competition.
The jury disqualified the 28-year-old saying he was caught “using communication devices”.
The first appeal presented by the Italian Rowing Federation was rejected. The federation said it is now preparing to file a second appeal with Perini’s phone logs to prove he didn’t use his cell while on the racing boat.
