Day 1 in Rio's Paralympics to see 7 Azerbaijani athletes

By Azernews

By Amina Nazarli

Seven Azerbaijani athletes will struggle for medals on the first day of Rio 2016 Summer Paralympic Games.

Azerbaijani judo fighters Ramin Ibrahimov (60kg) and Bayram Mustafayev will face Argentinean Eduardo Quato (60kg) and winner of the match between Portuguese Miguel Vieira (66kg) and Brazilian Halyson Oliveira Boto (66kg).

Three athletes will compete in athletics. Elchin Muradov will be in action in Athletics Men's Long Jump - T11, Elmir Jabrayilov Athletics Men's 400 m – T12 and Elena Chebuna will race in Athletics Women's 100 m – T12.

The swimmer brothers Dzmitry and Raman Salei will race in Swimming Men's 100m Butterfly.

Azerbaijan will be represented by 24 athletes in the Summer Paralympic Games, which will last until September 18.

Six female paralympians will compete in judo, athletics, powerlifting, swimming, bullet shooting and archery. In total, the country's paralympians got 41 licenses, which is more compared to London 2012 Paralympics.

Azerbaijan made its Paralympic Games debut at the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta, with a two-man delegation to compete in track and field and powerlifting. To date, Azerbaijan has participated in five Summer Paralympic Games.

So far, Azerbaijani athletes have won a total of 27 Paralympic medals, eight of which are gold, ten are silver and nine are bronze.  At the 2012 Summer Paralympics, Azerbaijani Paralympic team set a record bringing home a total of 12 medals, four of which were gold.