Scandalous discovery
The day before the start of the competitive program of the Paralympic Games in Tokyo, the opening ceremony was held. The colorful event, in which the Emperor of Japan Naruhito took part, was not without force majeure. Dmitry Guberniev, commenting on the ceremony on the air, claims that the Ukrainian national team refused to stand next to the delegation from Russia, for which this is the first participation in the Summer Paralympics since 2012.
“According to our athletes, our team is located next to the national team of Ukraine.
Naturally, ours greeted the Ukrainian delegation.
But then it began ... The head of the Paralympic Committee of Ukraine literally ordered his athletes to leave!
Say, everyone needs to rest, they need to leave the ceremony.
Can you imagine to what extent insanity can be reached, in this case, to the head of the Paralympic Committee of Ukraine.
What are you doing, madmen!
Here we have such a collision.
I feel sorry for the athletes.
They left the ceremony so as not to stand next to the Russians.
Who will stop these senile people? "
- said Guberniev on Match TV.
He later said that many Ukrainian athletes did not follow the instructions and remained at the stadium next to the representatives of the Russian team.
At the same time, the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) said that there were no provocations and the Ukrainians did not boycott their neighbors.
“The Ukrainian delegation is sitting next to us.
We with the head of the Paralympic Committee of Ukraine Valery Sushkevich greeted kindly.
And at the opening parade, they walked along parallel paths.
Almost the entire Ukrainian delegation is sitting with us.
Storytellers someone, out of the blue, come up with a scandal, "- said the acting.
head of the PKR Pavel Rozhkov RIA Novosti.
Pool medals
The Russian national team from the first day of the competition joined the struggle for the highest places in the overall standings.
So far, however, only through the efforts of the swimmers.
On Wednesday, they won six awards, of which three went gold, allowing the team to move up to third in the medal table.
The winning start was given by Valeria Shabalina performing in the S14 class (persons with intellectual disabilities). For her category, for the first time, a 100-meter butterfly swim was organized, in which a 26-year-old athlete from Chelyabinsk holds a world record. Shabalina, even at the preliminary stage, was faster than all rivals by more than one and a half seconds, and in the final she updated her world achievement. In the future, she will perform in four more disciplines, in one of which she also has no equal yet.
Roman Zhdanov also won gold with a planet record.
He became the best in the 50-meter breaststroke among persons with impaired musculoskeletal system.
The athlete from Gorno-Altaysk made it to the final with the third time, but only because he wanted to save energy for the main swim.
His plan worked, and he brought his closest rival more than two and a half seconds.
Former world record holder Efrem Morelli from Italy also swam in the final, but was only fourth.
The victory of 20-year-old Anastasia Gontar was much more difficult.
In the final 50 meters freestyle swim, the Dutch woman Chantal Seiderveld imposed a serious fight on her.
The girls swam together to the last, but still the Russian woman was able to win 0.04 seconds and win gold among the athletes of the S10 category.
Gontar also "helped" Andrei Nikolaev to get silver at a distance twice as long.
He made it to the final with a fourth time and, by his own admission, was very upset about it.
But when the native of Salavat found out that his compatriot had won, it inspired him so much that he was able to improve his result and swim in the final second, losing only 0.32 seconds in the dispute for gold.
The first prize-winner in the Russian team was Vladimir Danilenko.
He won bronze in the 100m backstroke among the S2 athletes.
In preliminary competitions, he showed the best time, but won very little against the Chilean Alberto Abarsa.
In the final, he still turned out to be the first, and Danilenko also missed the Brazilian Vladimir dos Santos.
The sixth medal for the national team was brought by the already experienced Daria Pikalova, who performed at the Paralympics back in 2012, where she won silver and three bronzes.
In Tokyo, she again became the third in the 100m butterfly swim among the visually impaired.
Australia's Leadership and China's Pursuit
At the end of the first day, Australia took the lead in the medal standings.
Her athletes won not only in swimming, but also in track cycling, and the 24-year-old Paige Greco became the first champion of the Tokyo Paralympics.
True, the Australians had one reason for frustration - in rugby, which is considered a national sport for them, the winners of the last two Games unexpectedly lost to Denmark in the group stage.
Between Australia and Russia so far is China, whose athletes have won the most Paralympic victories since 2004.
The Celestial Empire began the Games in Tokyo by winning all four gold medals in wheelchair fencing.
The fifth highest honor was brought to the Chinese team by the swimmer Zhang Li, who already has four gold medals at the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro in her collection.
One of the heroines of the starting day was the British cyclist Sarah Storey.
In the individual 3000m race, she won her 15th gold medal.
The 43-year-old girl began her sports career in swimming and for the first time conquered the Paralympic podium in 1992.
Due to an infection in her ear, Storey switched to cycling and continued to achieve victories in it.
Igor Bokiy from Belarus, the best catcher of the previous Paralympics, started the Games in Tokyo successfully.
As a result of the 100-meter butterfly swim, he became a 12-time champion.
Israeli swimmer Iyad Shalabi will not forget the first day of the Games.
Since 2008, he has tried unsuccessfully to win a medal, but at his best, he was in fourth place.
Only in Tokyo, he was able to finally climb the podium, and immediately to its highest step.
Shalabi won the 100m backstroke.