National paraswimmers win gold and silver medals in Portugal

Azerbaijani paraswimmer Vali Israfilov has won a gold medal at the European Open Championship in Madeira Portugal, Azernews reports.

On the third day of the competition, our athlete finished first in the 100-meter breaststroke.

Another national paraswimmer Roman Salei became the European champion in the 100-meter backstroke and earned silver medal in butterfly swimming at the same distance.

Note that Roman Salei is a three-time winner of the Summer Paralympic Games 2020 in Tokyo.

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.

Roman 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.