National paralympian wins World Championship silver
By Laman Ismayilova
Azerbaijani Paralympic swimmer Roman Salei has claimed a silver medal at the World Para Swimming Championships in Madeira, Portugal, Azernews reports, citing the Azerbaijani Ministry of Youth and Sports.
The swimmer showed a result of 1:00.71 in the 100-meter backstroke.
Roman Salei is a three-time winner of the Summer Paralympic Games 2020 in Tokyo.
He represented Azerbaijan at the 2016 Summer Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and the 2020 Summer Paralympic Games in Tokyo, winning three gold medals and one silver.
In 2019, Salei won silver in the 100 m backstroke S12 and bronze in the 50 m freestyle S12 and 100 m freestyle S12 at World Para Swimming Championships. He improved on this performance at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, winning gold in both the 100-meter freestyle S12 and 100-meter backstroke S12 events.
He became the first three-time Paralympic champion in the history of Azerbaijan.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani paralympians won 14 gold medals and 19 medals overall at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Paralympics, beating their previous best of 4 golds and 12 medals in London 2012 and overall medal of 9 gold.
Raman Salei, Vugar Shirinli, Sevda Valieva, Khanum Huseynova, Huseyn Rahimli, Shahana Hajiyeva, Hamid Heydari, Elvin Astanov, Dursadaf Karimova, Vali Israfilov, Lamia Valiyeva and Orkhan Aslanov enriched the country's medal haul with gold medals.
Lamiya Valiyeva won silver, while bronze medals came from Parvin Mammadov, Namig Abasli, Ilham Zakiyev and Said Najafzade.
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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lamiva993