Japan men’s goalball team wins first gold medal at Paris Paralympics; women’s wheelchair tennis pair wins gold

PARIS — Japan won its first gold medal in the men’s goalball event at the Paris Paralympic Games on Thursday, beating Ukraine 4-3 in a match that went into overtime.

Although the Japanese women’s team has won three medals in the sport, including gold at the 2012 London Paralympic Games, this is the first time the men’s team has won a medal.

Also on Thursday, Yui Kamiji, 30, and Manami Tanaka, 28, became the first Japanese pair to win gold in women’s wheelchair tennis doubles, beating the Dutch duo.

In the men’s wheelchair tennis singles, 18-year-old Tokito Oda defeated Argentine Gustavo Fernandez in the semi-finals to advance to the final on Saturday.

Natsuki Wada, 21, became the first Japanese athlete to win gold in the women’s para table tennis singles in the WS11 classification for athletes with intellectual disabilities, beating Olympic gold medalist Elena Prokofeva of Tokyo, Russia, who competed as a neutral athlete. Kanami Furukawa won bronze in the same event.

In para-athletics, Ryota Fukunaga (25) won silver in the men’s 400 meters in the T13 class for people with visual impairment with a time of 48.07 seconds.

In para judo, Shizuka Hangai won the silver medal in the women’s 48-kilogram division in the complete blindness class, losing to Nataliya Nikolaychyk of Ukraine. Hangai’s silver medal is Japan’s first in this event.

In boccia, the Japanese team of Hiromi Endo, Takayuki Hirose and Hidetaka Sugimura defeated South Korea 8-3 to win the bronze medal in the BC1/BC2 mixed team event for athletes who are allowed to receive assistance and athletes who compete independently.

The team recovered from a 0-9 defeat to Indonesia in Wednesday’s semi-finals to claim their third consecutive medal at the Paralympic Games.