Spain's slow start halted by day seven medal rout

2016-09-17 04:00:00

After an inauspicious start to the Rio Paralympics that saw Spain fall to 28th in the medal table, day seven produced a landslide of medals in the pool, with three golds, one silver and one bronze. This rocketed the nation up the table into 19th position overall, with five golds, seven silvers and seven bronze medals.
Barcelona-born Óscar Salguero started out proceedings on the seventh day with gold in the SB8 100 metre breast-stroke. Israel Oliver and Michelle Alonso continued in the same vein, the latter winning the S14 100 metre breast-stroke with a new Paralympic record. Miguel Luque and María Delgado completed the prolific day for Spain with silver and bronze medals respectively.
The medals served to highlight Spain's strength in the pool, with 12 of their 19 medals so far coming from the aquatic centre. Nuria Marqués was Spain's first gold medal-winning swimmer, winning the S9 400 metre freestyle by a mere two hundredths of a second. A pair of silver medals were also won by Teresa Parales, who added to her vast collection with her 23rd and 24th Paralympic medal. Sarai Gascón, who set a new Spanish record in the 200 metres butterfly SM9 category, has secured her third silver medal of the games following her second-place finish in the 100 metres butterfly. She also equalled the European record in the 100 metres freestyle. Ariadna Edo swam an astonishing final 50 metres to beat German Naomi Maike Schnittger to the bronze in the 400 metres freestyle.
Valencian Kim López remains the highlight for Spanish athletics, winning gold in the shot put F12 category for visually-impaired athletes with a throw of 16.44 metres. The result also meant that Spain surpassed 200 Paralympic gold medals. Elsewhere in athletics, Izaskun Oses won bronze in the 1500 metres while Jairo Ruiz achieved the same feat in the triathlon. Experienced Paralympian David Casinos added to his tally of four golds with bronze in the discus.
Spanish cyclists opened their medal account with Alfonso Cabello securing bronze in the individual time trial. Cabello then doubled his tally alongside Amador Granados and Eduardo Santas as they won bronze in the team pursuit, the country's first ever Paralympic medal in the event.
Álvaro Valera had to settle for silver in the table tennis as he lost to the Danish Rosenmeier. Valera was hoping to better his silver in the Paralympics in London four years ago but came up short against a stronger opponent.
There was disappointment for the Spanish blind 5-a-side football team who lost their final group game 1-0 to Argentina, ending their hopes for a medal. However, the Spanish men's wheelchair basketball side have guaranteed themselves a medal by beating Great Britain 69-63, their best ever result in the event. By reaching the final, they have overtaken their previous best result of fourth place in Atlanta 1996.source surinenglish