Algeria are now in 32nd place on the medal table, after winning another two medals and taking their tally up to seven on day five of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.  

Skander Djamil Athmani came very close to gold in the 100m (T13) and Lynda Hamri won bronze in the T12 long jump.  

Athmani, who made his Paralympic debut today, impressed a lot of people in the qualification stage on the 100m T13. The Algerian athlete smashed the African record and clocked the quickest time out throughout all three heats. He came first in Heat 1 with a time of 10:59, far ahead of the Australian Chad Perris who finished second on 10:90.

The Algerian Paralympic sprinter then came so close to winning the gold and surprising the world as he finished in second position with 10:54, only 00:01 seconds behind the three time Paralympic champion, Irishman Jason Smyth (10:53). The bronze medal went to Colombian Jean Carlos Mina Aponza (10:64).

Following this impressive display, Athmani will compete in the 400m event where he will also aim for a medal.

The experienced Hamri was already a favourite for a medal in the F12 long jump and she did not disappoint after claiming the bronze medal on her first attempt with a distance of 5.33m, thus reissuing the bronze of the last Games in Rio 2016, but also achieving her best performance after a year of downfalls.

The Ukrainian, Oksana Zubkovska was named the Paralympic champion after achieving a distance of 5.54m, followed by the Spanish Sara Martinez, silver medallist with a jump of 5.38m.

Shout out to the other Algerian athletes, Salah Khelaïfia who competed in the same event as Athmani, but in Heat 2 failed to qualify to the final after finishing in fourth place with a time of 11:36 (his best time of the year).

In judo, the Algerian participation ended, with the athlete Abderrahmane Chetouane (B1) who finished in 9th position in the -90kg competition.

The Algerian Men’s Goalball and Men’s and Women’s wheelchair basketball teams are yet to win a game and will shortly see the end of the road.

Huge respect to Mohamed Berrahal (F51) who took part in the discus, but with the F52 class which is a higher and difficult level, nevertheless he was able to mark a new Paralympic record.

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