UAE brings in second gold medal at Rio's paralympics

Emirati paralympian Mohammad al-Hammadi scors a gold during the T34 800 metres wheelchair race bringing Arab nations' medal count to 55.

Narrated

2 min read

The New Arab

15 Sep, 2016

Al-Hammadi won gold at the T34 800m race in Rio [Getty]

The UAE secured a gold medal in the Paralympic's wheelchair 800 metres race on Wednesday, taking the total number of Arab medals to over 50.

Emirati Mohammad al-Hammadi broke his own record in the latest T34 800m race after shooter Abdullah Sultan al-Aryani won a silver medal.

On Tuesday, Mohammad Khamis Khalaf won the UAE's first gold in the men's 88kg powerlifting competition.

Qatar's Abdulrahman Abdulqadir won the Gulf state its first medal in Paralympics history when he took home a silver medal in the men's shot put F34 on Sunday.

Abdulqadir missed out on taking the top spot after Moroccan Azeddine Nouiri made a throw of 11.28 metres to claim the title for himself.

The Qatari athlete will continue his quest for gold on Friday in the men's javelin event.

Saudi Arabia's Hani Alnakhli won a bronze medal in the men's shot put F33 on Saturday after losing to Algerian Kamel Kardjena.

Egyptian powerlifter Fatma Omar won the silver medal in the women's -61kg event on Sunday.

Leading the Arab medal table is Tunisia with fourteen medals - including five gold - and sitting in seventeenth place in the global medal tables.

Following closely behind is Egypt winning eleven medals, the UAE with five, Iraq with four, Morocco and Jordan with three, while Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia each have one medal.

The Arab world has raked up 55 medals since the Paralympics games opened in Rio on 7 September.