Iran tops 1st Paralympic mixed team ranking round

Rio 2016 marks the first Paralympic Games to include mixed team events, featuring one man and one woman from the same discipline and same nation.

Mixed team competitions for W1, recurve open and compound open classifications take place in Rio.

Ebrahim Ranjbarkivaj seeded first overall in the recurve men’s open ranking round with 637 points, ahead of Thailand’s Hanreuchai Netsiri in second and Germany’s Maik Szarszewski in third.

Ranjbarkivaj’s teammate Zahra Nemati ranked second in the recurve women’s open field behind Wu Chunyan with 627 points.

The pair’s combined qualification score was 1264, securing Iran the first-overall seed in the first recurve mixed team event at the Paralympic Games.

“It was a good day for me. But I hope to get some more good results,” said Ranjbarkivaj. “The coaches and trainers decide if I’m going with Zahra into the mixed team [matches] or someone else.”

Nemati, who was an individual gold medallist at London 2012 who also competed at the Olympic Games in Rio, grinned as she said the emotions she felt during her second trip to the Sambodromo were completely different.

“I’m just doing my job. I’m tired from the Olympic Games, but I’m going to recharge and move ahead. I’m only trying to be happy with archery here,” she said.

“My goal all the time is to be the best. I’m doing all that I can do to be the best. I’m doing all that I can to reach my goal.”

The top-seeded Iranian pair is the same experienced duo that won gold at the World Archery Para Championships when the mixed team event was first introduced, in Turin in 2011.

“Doing things for the first time in my life, it’s a new horizon, and it’s amazing,” said Ebrahim.

“Each time I attend the Paralympic Games, I see many people with different abilities. If there’s one sentence I can say about the Paralympic Games, it means: ‘I can do’.”

The para archery competition at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games runs 10-17 September in the Sambodromo.

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