PARIS — The wheelchair tennis matches got underway at Roland Garros on Tuesday and the first round immediately saw an upset with Takuya Miki (JPN) taking out the number four seed, Martin de la Puente (ESP) in the first round.
In a tight first set Miki claimed the win 7-5 but things appeared to be stabilizing for de la Puente in the second which he claimed 6-3. Miki stormed back to win the third set 6-4, his second win in a grand slam. What is notable is that the pair both won 111 points but Miki was able to claim far more crucial points to win the match.
The rest of the men’s singles matches went as expected with wins for Alfie Hewett (GBR), Gordon Reid (GBR), Gustavo Fernandez (ARG), Alexander Cataldo (CHI), Tom Egberink (NED), and Tokito Oda (JPN) all in straight sets. Oda had the only scare of the group, only winning the first set on a tie-break 9-7 against Ruben Spaargaren (NED).
Another Asian player produced an upset in the women’s singles with Zhenzhen Zhu (CHN) taking out the number four seed Jiske Griffioen (NED) in straight sets. Zhu was made to work for it, winning the second only on a 7-5 tie-break.
Much like the men’s draw the rest was all straight sets wins for the favorites. Diede De Groot (NED), Aniek Van Koot (NED), Diana Mathewson (USA), Lizy De Greef (NED), Momoko Ohtani (JPN), and Yui Kamiji (JPN).
This year marks an historic tournament in Roland Garros as for the first time there will be youth championships at the grand slam. Tournaments in boys and girls singles and doubles start later this week with four competitors seeking to win the historic honor.
TOBLACH, Italy — After cancelled events in Poland last week the Nordic Skiing system finally got underway this weekend in Toblach.
The United States came away with four wins in the 10km classical events. Jake Adicoff (Guide: Jake Brown) won the men’s vision impaired double, finishing in a time of 30:37.9 in the time trial, just clear of Zebasitian Modin (SWE, Guide: Emil Joensson) who had a factored time of 30:53.4. Thursday’s finish was even closer, a one second win for Adicoff in the mass start, Modin just couldn’t close the gap.
The other US golds were won by a familiar face, Oksana Masters, finishing just 20 seconds clear of teammate Kendall Gretsch to win the women’s sitting races both days.
North America wasn’t done with medals in the 10km classical races there; CanadianMark Arendz claimed the men’s standing race finishing almost one minute ahead of his nearest rival. His was the only win that wasn’t repeated in the mass start race, swapping second place with Japanese skier Taiki Kawayoke.
His teammate Brittany Hudak medaled in the women’s standing interval start, finishing a distant second to Norwegian great Vilde Nilsen before finishing third in the mass-start which was again won by Nilsen.
The hosts had something to cheer about in the men’s sitting which was claimed by Giuseppe Romele who beat out Ukrainian Pavlo Bal twice. This race saw more medals the Canadians with Derek Zaplotinsky claiming bronze in both races.
Germany dominated the women’s vision impaired races with Linn Kazmaier (Guide: Florian Baumann) finishing well in front of her teammate Leonie Maria Walter (Guide: Christian Krasman) to win both races.
Sundays saw the event switch to freestyle after the sprit races were cancelled. It opened with another home gold for Romele to sweep the men’s sitting classification. This time it was Brazilian Cristian Westemaier Barrera who finished second, relegating Bal to bronze.
Masters also completed her sweep, again beating teammate Gretsch, by just five seconds, as the two set a marker for the rest of the field to try and catch next week in Martell.
The men’s standing saw a drastically different result on Sunday with German Marco Meier claiming gold with Arendz not starting the race. Serheii Romaniuk (UKR) finished in second just seven seconds back. Nilsen completed her sweep of the women’s standing events easily, more than a minute ahead of Ukrainian duo Oleksandra Kononova and Liudmyla Liashenko.
Adicoff completed his sweep of the men’s vision impaired races, putting the Americans top of the medal table with six. The German domination of the women’s standing was broken in the freestyle race when Simona Bubenickova (CZE) claimed the gold by seven seconds from Kazmaier.
Laurens Devos (BEL) semifinal bound in Pajulahti (Photo: ITTF/Michael Loveder)
PAJULAHTI, Finland — The Finland Para Open table tennis got under way on Friday with the men’s singles events swiftly reaching the knockout rounds ahead of some finals tomorrow.
There were two thrillers in the quarterfinals of the men’s singles class 2. The number one seed Guilherme Marcio Da Costa (BRA) was eliminated in the quarters by Spanish number four seed Daniel Rodriguez, who won the last two gams 11-9, 11-7 to advance. He will meet Jiri Suchanek (CZE) in the semifinal after another 3-2 win in even more dramatic fashion. Suchanek came from two games down winning the last three 11-9, 11-6, 11-9.
The other semifinal will be between Boris Stoiljkovic (SRB) and Iker Sastre (ESP) who won their matches 3-1 and 3-0 respectively.
Class 3 also saw two 3-2 matches. Alexander Ohgren (SWE) advanced, after winning the first he gave up the next two games. That forced him to come back and he did, winning the last two 11-9, 11-8. He will play Florian Merrien (FRA) who has only dropped one game all tournament.
Petr Svatos (CZE) overcame Colin Judge (IRE) 3-2. His win was different, winning the first two games before losing two straight he won the decider 11-7. He’ll face Yuichiro Kitagawa (JPN) who won his quarter 3-1.
Similarly, class 7 has two semifinalists whose quarterfinals went the distance. Hiromoto Kita (JPN) needed extra points to win his match, winning the third 12-10 to complete a comeback. Kita’s opponent will be Brazilian Paulo Sergio Salmin Filho who won 3-1.
The other semifinal is also a Brazilian against a Japanese player and they followed a similar route. Kosuke Hemmi (JPN) also needed extra points to win his quarter final. After losing the second and third games by large margins he won the fourth 12-10 and the fifth 14-12. He will meet Paulo Henrique Fonseca in the semifinal.
The class 8 quarters were much more simple. Vit Spalek (CZE) was the only one who dropped a game, the three others swept their way to the semis.
The women’s singles also reached the semifinals, but with smaller fields had no quarter finals. Saturday will see the singles championships awarded while the doubles get started. Matches can be followed live through the ITTF event page.
SHEFFIELD, England – On a day when British swimmers took headlines it was a Brazilian, Gabriel Dos Santos Araujo who was the biggest star. The opening day of the Para Swimming World Series event at Ponds Forge on Thursday saw plenty of excitement but Gabrielzinho closed the day with a flourish.
It was a dominant performance from Araujo who used a strong first 50m to break the world record in the men’s 150m individual medley in his SM2 class. His time of 3:23.83 was actually fourth in the final but in a multiclass event, he was the clear winner. Austrian Andreas Emhofer (SM4) was the first to touch the wall, getting silver while British swimmer Lyndon Longhorne broke the national record for SM4 when he finished third.
Brazil bookended the night with gold, as the opening final was won by Maria Carolina Gomes Santiago won the women’s 100m Freestyle. She was the only swimmer under one minute easily claiming gold ahead of Yuyan Jiang (CHN) and Lisette Bruinsma (NED) who completed the podium.
It was a good day for British swimmers, the only other country to win two events. William Ellard broke the British S14 record in the men’s 100m freestyle on his way to gold in 51.97. Gabriel Banderia won another medal for Brazil with silver while Laurent Chardard and Stephen Clegg tied for bronze with an identical factored score.
Maisie Summers-Newton was the other British winner, claiming gold in the women’s 200m individual medley. Her time of 2:57.19 was a British record in the SM6 classification. Two Britons made the podium with Grace Harvey managing the bronze with Anastasia Dmytriv (ESP) claiming the silver medal.
Argentina made a dent on its regional rivals with a gold medal of its own. Inaki Basiloff won the men’s 200m individual medley in a tight battle. His 962 points just saw him past Naohide Yamaguchi (JPN) with Rogier Dorsman (NED) a little further back for the bronze medal.
China broke through for a gold medal in the second last event of the night. Yu Liu claimed the win in the women’s 150m individual medley. She was just 14 points clear of Patricia Pereira dos Santos (BRA) with Ellie Challis (GBR) only 13 further back. Challis also managed a national record with a time of 3:20.72 setting a new mark for the SM3.
The event continues on Friday with backstroke and breaststroke events.
TOKYO – A wheelchair tennis legend has left the sport as 38-year-old, Japanese superstar, Shingo Kunieda, announced his retirement on Sunday.
After 21 years and a career golden slam, the first man to achieve that feat, Kunieda’s career has come to an end.
“I’ve been thinking about retirement since my dream came true at Tokyo Paralympics,” 38-year-old Kunieda wrote on social media. “Last year, (winning the) Wimbledon singles title for the first time made me feel that my energy was little left to compete. I felt that I have done enough in what I wanted to accomplish and thought it was the right time to retire.”
Kunieda won 50 Grand Slam titles—28 singles and 22 doubles—since joining the tour in 2001. With singles alone, that puts him four ahead of Margaret Court, the most successful non-wheelchair singles player. With 50 Grand Slam titles, he is the most successful Grand Slam champion of any discipline, surpassing Dutch women’s wheelchair athlete Esther Vergeer, who has 48.
His career saw him win the golden slam in both singles and doubles, joining Serena Williams, Dylan Alcott, and Diede De Groot as the only people to achieve the feat.
Kunieda’s retirement leaves a significant prize available at the Australian Open, his world number 1 ranking. His achievements will be near impossible to match, along with his 50 grand slam titles, he won medals at five straight Paralympic Games, capped by a home gold medal in Tokyo in 2021.
It’s fitting that this announcement meant Kunieda’s last match was at the Japan Open Final, a match where he edged Japan’s new young star, Tokito Oda, perhaps passing the torch to the next great Japanese tennis star.
BAIE-COMEAU, Quebec, Canada – It was a day of very close finishes, with some needing a photo finish, as the world para-cycling championships wrapped up on Sunday.
France had the best of the final day, winning three gold medals. They finished first and second in the men’s C2 road race. Alexandre Leaute completed a double with a nine-second win over compatriot Florian Chapeau.
Kevin Le Cunff improved from his bronze in the time-trial to claim the men’s C5 road race. It took a photo finish to give him the gold medal after the top four all finished simultaneously. Another photo was needed in the women’s C5 with Marie Patouillet declared the winner narrowly ahead of Kerstin Brachtendorf (GER).
Dutch pair Tristan Bangma and Patrick Bos celebrate winning gold. (Photo: Swpix/UCI)
The Netherlands claimed the top spot in the medal tally after winning the final event of the championships with Tristan Bangma winning the men’s B road race with his pilot Patrick Bos. It completed a stunning season for the pair, who have won every event they’ve competed in.
Ireland also had an impressive final day, claiming two gold medals. A photo finish gave Ronan Grimes the win in the men’s C4. It was the most extended wait for any of the photo finishes of the day and sparked big celebrations.
The podium from the women’s B road race (photo: swpix/UCI)
A big push on the final lap of the women’s B road race saw Katie-George Dunlevy claim gold with her pilot Eve McCrystal. That saw them overcome the British pair who beat them in the time trial.
It wasn’t all bad for British cyclists, with Finlay Graham claiming gold in the men’s C3 road race. A second gold was added by Frances Brown in the C1.
The most dominant performance of the day came in the men’s C1 when Spaniard Ricardo Ten Argiles won by five minutes.
German Maike Hausberger backed up from her time trial gold to win the women’s C5 road race. Japan picked up its first championship gold medal with the women’s C3 road race through Keiko Suguira in just two seconds. Samantha Bosco claimed gold for the USA in the women’s C4 road race, finishing three minutes clear.
PARIS – For the first time, a grand slam had a wheelchair singles field of 32, increasing opportunities on the sport’s biggest stage. And with that has come some stunning upsets in Roland Garros with at least one player that would have missed out if it was 16 making the semi-final stages.
The biggest upset in the men’s singles draw is Tokito Ota, ranked ninth in the world, who has set up an all-Japanese semi-final with world number two Shingo Kunieda.
After playing in the new first round, he took out the French legend Nicolas Peifer 6-1, 6-3. After that, he took on Gordon Reid (GBR #4) and again came through in straight sets 6-1, 6-4.
No.2 seed Shingo Kunieda won his men’s wheelchair singles quarter-final against France’s Stephane Houdet.
In the semi-final, he will take on Kunieda, who continued the rough tournament for French players against Japanese players. Kunieda beat Stefane Houdet 6-3, 6-2.
The other semi-final will see the British number one seed, Alfie Hewett, take on Argentina’s number three seed Gustavo Hernandez.
After a bye to the second round, Hewett beat Tom Egerbink 6-1, 6-2. Fernandez also took a bye to the second round and won a challenging first set 6-4 before beating Martin De La Puente (ESP) 6-1 in the second.
Japanese No.2 seed Yui Kamiji
The women’s singles went precisely as the seeding suggested it would. The world number one Diede De Groot (NED) is through to the semis after a 6-2, 6-1 win over Angelica Bernal (COL). She will play Kgothatso Montjane (RSA), who also won through in straight sets 6-3, 6-3.
The other semi-final will pit the second and third players in the world against each other. Anniek Van Koot (NED) came back from a set down to beat Dana Mathewson (USA) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. Yuji Kamiji won the all-Japanese second round match against Momoko Ohtani in three 7-6(7), 3-6, 6-2.
SALOU, Spain – Australia and Japan both scored a massive haul of goals to open the first Cerebral Palsy Football Women’s World Cup at Salou on Wednesday.
Japan managed a 6-1 win over the hosts to start its tournament very successfully. The opening goal came after four minutes, with Mai Ohta scoring early. Spain held out until the 22nd minute, when Miyabi Hamada scored the second and opened the floodgates. In the 25th minute, Mai had her second, while Hamada completed her brace in the fourth minute of first-half stoppage.
Just three minutes into the second half Ayumi Takemura made it five for Japan, continuing the hurt for the hosts. The final Japanese goal came in the 31st minute through Saki Kurkoi.
Spain did manage to pull a goal back, which will have lifted confidence with Maria Callejo Arranz scoring the historic goal in the 35th minute.
Australia blew past the Netherlands, winning their match 12-0. It was 9-0 in the first 25 minutes, but the Dutch were better in the second half, creating a couple of chances.
Georgia Beikhoff was the star for the Para Matildas scoring six of the goals, four of them in the first eight minutes. Captain Eloise Northam joined Beikhoff scoring early, scoring her first in the sixth minute and again in the 27th minute.
Lainee Harrison scored in the 17th minute before a beauty from an unlikely source, goalkeeper Katelyn Smith, scored the sixth at the stroke of half-time.
There were two goals in the first two minutes of the second half, with Beikhoff then Northam scoring the goals. Charlize Tran got on the scorers’ sheet in the 44th minute, with Beikhoff completing her six-goal haul one minute later.
Nicole Christodoulou wrapped up the scoring, scoring in the last minute to wrap up the 12 goal win.
BEIJING – It was a perfect finish to the individual biathlon for Ukraine at Beijing 2022 with the team claiming three gold medals.
Ukraine won eight gold, nine silver and five bronze medals at these Paralympic Games all from individual biathlon to seal the best ever performance in the sport.
Friday’s success began with Liudmyla Liashenko who claimed her first individual title by winning the women’s standing. She dominated the race from start to finish and easily claimed her long-awaited gold medal.
“It was a really long wait for me to get this gold medal. I’ve been to a lot of trainings and won a lot of gold medals in World Cups and World Championships over the past seasons. I was sure that my gold was waiting for me at these Paralympic Games and I am really happy and proud to be a Paralympic champion.”
Liudmyla Liashenko
That win was followed up by a second gold for Oksana Shyshkova (guide: Andriy Marchenko) in the women’s vision impaired. She held off a rush at the death from German pair Linn Kazmier (guide: Florian Baumann) and Leonie Maria Walter (guide: Pirmin Strecker) to win the race.
It was a sweep of the vision impaired events for Ukraine as Oleksandr Kazik (guide: Serhii Kucheriavyi) claimed men’s gold medal ahead of teammate Vitalii Lukianenko (guide: Borys Babar). China continued its good Games as Shuang Yu (guide: Wang Guanyu) claimed bronze.
Photo: OIS/Chloe Knott
Benjamin Daviet (FRA) backed up from winning a gold medal earlier in the Games as he claimed the gold in the men’s standing. That saw another medal for Ukraine with Grygorii Vovchynskyi claiming the bronze medal, the pair were joined on the podium by Mark Arendz (CAN).
A perfectly paced race by Oksana Masters (USA) overcome her teammate Kendall Gretsch in the final 2.5km to claim gold in the women’s sitting. It was her second gold medal of the games with China adding another medal through Yilin Shan.
China got another gold medal in the men’s standing through Liu Mengtao who controlled the whole race. He was joined on the podium by a teammate as Zixu Liu came third, while silver was another one for Ukraine through Taras Rad.
Aiger family dominates alpine skiing
Austrian sisters, the Aigers, had a big day on the alpine skiing slopes taking home three medals in the women’s vision impaired giant slalom.
Veronika, guided by Elisabeth took home the gold medal while their sister Barbara claimed the bronze medal with her guide Klara Sykora.
Momoka Muraoka (JPN) claimed her third gold medal as she won the women’s standing yet again. A rapid second run, seven seconds faster than the rest of the field, saw her claim the gold medal. She led two Chinese athletes in Liu Sitong and Zhang Wenjing.
China managed one more gold in the alpine events with Zhang Mengqiu transitioning successfully from speed to technical events in the women’s sitting. She won both runs, pushing Mollie Jepsen (CAN) to second with Andrea Rothfuss (GER).
China continues to dominate snowboarding
Photo: OIS/Thomas Lovelock
The Chinese gold rush continued on the snowboarding slopes as the hosts claimed three gold medals in the banked snowboard slalom.
It was a sweep of the men’s lower limb classifications for China as Wu Zhongwei won the SB-LL1 and Sun Qi won the SB-LL2.
Wu was dominant in the SB-LL1 winning both runs to cruise to victory ahead of Chris Vos (NED) who recovered from his disappointing snowboard cross final. In third place was the snowboard cross champion, Tyler Turner (CAN).
Sun was measured to claim gold, stunning world champion Matti Suur Hamari (FIN). There was history on the lowest step of the podium as Ollie Hall won the first snowboard Paralympic medal for Great Britain.
Another one looking to make up for disappointment in snowboard cross was Maxime Montaggioni (FRA) in the men’s SB-UL. It was a tight race after one run with Ji Lijia (CHN) leading Montaggioni by 0.01 seconds. The second run was a bigger difference with Montaggioni winning by 0.46 to claim the gold medal.
Ji said: “That’s like a finger’s distance. It’s OK.”
Brenna Huckaby (USA) received vindication by winning gold in the women’s banked slalom SB-LL2. Usually a competitor in the higher impairment SB-LL1, Huckaby won a lawsuit to compete up in the lower impairment category. That proved very worth it as she came back from second place in the first run to power past the Chinese pair of Geng Yanhong and Li Tiantian.
2018 rematch set in ice hockey final
Two lopsided semifinals set up a rematch of the 2018 ice hockey final as Canada and the USA both managed 11-0 wins to advance.
Canada managed the result against South Korea while the USA was surprisingly emphatic against the previously undefeated Chinese.
The two North Americans will meet for the second time in this tournament in the final. The previous match was won by the USA 5-0.
The only other game of the day was the fifth-place playoff, which Italy won. The Italians beat the Czech Republic in a thriller, 4-3.
China and Sweden win curling semifinals
China will defend its curling title after backing up to win the semifinal over Canada, they will take on Sweden in the battle for gold after the surprise package continued its good results.
It was a comfortable win for China, getting past Canada 9-5, firmly showing that dominance of the sport has shifted east.
Sweden guaranteed its best finish with a thrilling 6-4 win over Slovakia. Trailing coming into the 6th end, Sweden knew it needed to work and picked up a point. The Swedes picked up a point in each of the last three ends to take the win.
That moved the two losers into the bronze medal game and Canada emerged victorious. A stunning take out from Jon Thurston with the final draw of the game saw Canada claim four points and an 8-3 win for its second straight bronze medal.
BEIJING – Canada lifted up to third place on the medal tally after its strongest day at Beijing 2022. A record-breaking performance from Brian McKeever was a particular highlight.
McKeever (guide: Graham Kennedy) won his 14th Paralympic Games gold medal in his favorite event, the men’s vision impaired long-distance cross country.
“I’m still hungry. I still love training every day. When we are out there, we are still competing against each other on the training sessions.”
Brian McKeever
Jake Adicoff (USA) (guide: Sam Wood) might be the one to take over McKeever’s throne as he finished in a close second place. Zebastian Modin (SUI) (guide: Emil Joensson Haag) was behind the two North Americans to take bronze.
Canada’s good day continued in the women’s standing which was claimed by Natalie Wilkie who was joined on the podium by teammate Brittany Hudak who claimed the bronze medal. Splitting the pair was American Sydney Peterson.
Oksana Shyshkova (UKR) (guide: Andriy Marchenko) repeated her opening day heroics as she claimed gold in the women’s vision impaired and is looking to control the classification.
“I think I will realize my great achievement here after everything ends and I get home, but all our medals that our team win here we dedicate to Ukraine and to every citizen of Ukraine,” Shyshkova said.
In comparison to McKeever Taiki Kawayoke (JPN) claimed his maiden gold medal claiming the men’s standing, finishing 90 seconds clear of the field.
Canadian history continues in snowboard
Photo: OIS/Thomas Lovelock
History continued for the Canadian team on the snowboard slope as Lisa Dejong claimed her country’s first medal in the sport, winning the women’s snowboard-cross SB-LL2. Cecile Hernandez (FRA) claimed gold, the pair upsetting American Brenna Huckaby.
Things got better for Canada in the men’s SB-LL1 as Tyler Turner backed up his world championship finishing ahead of defending champion Mike Schultz (USA).
“This is crazy. Four years ago I didn’t even think I’d snowboard, and now standing on top of the podium, it’s unbelievable.”
Tyler Turner
It was an all-Chinese final in the men’s SB-UL which shocked the sport after Maxime Montaggioni was eliminated in the quarter-finals. Ji Lija claimed the gold medal ahead of Wang Pengayo and Zhu Yonggang.
Matti Suur-Hamari (FIN) defended his title in the men’s SB-LL2 with two first-time medalists behind him. Garret Geros (USA) finished in second while Ben Tudhope (AUS) completed the podium.
Big comeback sees Forster claim combined gold
Photo: OIS/Simon Bruty
After being disappointed to miss out on the downhill and super-G, Anna Lena-Forster (GER) claimed the gold medal in the women’s sitting super combined.
Coming fourth in the super-G, Forster had to overcome an almost 10-second deficit to claim the gold medal but was rapid in the slalom to win it. The gold ended Momoka Muraoka’s (JPN) hope of sweeping the classification as she was forced to settle for second.
There was another comeback in the women’s standing as Ebba Aarsjoe (SWE) who came back from three seconds back in the super-G to claim the gold medal thanks to a great run in the slalom. That relegated Zhang Mengqui (CHN) to the silver medal.
Jesper Pederson (NOR) claimed his second gold medal in as many days as he won the men’s sitting. The Dutch pair of Jeroen Kampschreur and Nils de Langen rounded out the podium.
After finally breaking through for his first Paralympic title Arthur Bauchet doubled up as he won the men’s standing. Santeri Kiiveri (FIN) claimed his country’s first alpine Paralympic medal finishing in second while Adam Hall (NZL) finished third.
Henrieta Farkasova (SVK) (guide: Michal Cerven) claimed yet another gold medal, her 11th. A stunning slalom run pushed her past Zhu Daqing (CHN) (guide: Yan Hanhan). The men’s race was won by Giacomo Bertagnolli (ITA) (guide: Andrea Ravelli).
Baltics claim first curling wins
Photo: OIS/Bob Martin
It was a historic day for Estonia and Latvia as both managed their first Paralympic curling wins. Estonia came out victorious in the Baltic derby before stunning the defending silver medalists Norway. In Latvia’s second game they shocked the world championship silver medalists Sweden to get on the board.
China had its best day of the Bonspiel so far, winning both of its games today. The hosts beat South Korea 9-4 and Switzerland 7-4 to secure a 3-3 record.
Canada fell for the first time of the tournament as Sweden stunned the defending champions 6-3 in the morning session.
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