It was a blockbuster weekend at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics for team Australia and team Greece.
Greece saw two more medals added to its tally, in the pool and in the stadium.
Athanasios Konstantinidis won the country’s first silver medal, taking out second place in the men’s club throw F32.
Konstantinidis’ silver medal win prompted Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Dendias, to tweet out his congratulations.
“A fourth medal for Greece at the Tokyo Games, with our Paralympian Athanasios Konstantinidis winning the silver medal in the F32 club throw. Warm congratulations!” he said.
This is the 51-year-old’s third Paralympic medal, after scoring a gold and a silver at the 2016 Rio Games in shot put F32 and club throw F32 respectively.
He dedicated the 2016 gold medal to his father who had sadly passed away earlier that year.
Antonios Tsapatakis won a bronze medal in the men’s 100m breaststroke SB4 in one minute 40.20 seconds, behind Russia’s Dmitrii Cherniaev, who set a world record, and Colombian Moises Fuentes Garcia.
The 33-year-old has been one with the water for many years, having competed as a water polo athlete before a motorbike accident in 2006.
He obtained a spinal cord injury and instead of leaving the pool behind, he trained to become a swimmer, debuting internationally in 2009 at the IPC Swimming European Championships in Iceland. He left the competition with a bronze medal.
Tsapatakis also campaigned to change laws in Greece that would allow people with impairments to serve in the police. Prior to injuring his spinal cord, the athlete had begun studying at the Hellenic Police Academy in 2005.
His campaigning was successful and he returned to work as a police officer in the sports service of the Hellenic Police in 2017.
Despite dropping again in the overall medal tally, the Aussies have still managed to collect a handful of medals over the weekend.
Australia’s most recent gold came from the track thanks to Madison de Rosario who took out the top spot in the women’s T53 800m. The 27-year-old improved on her silver medal performance in the same event at the Rio Games in 2016.
Isis Holt also scored a medal on the track, taking the silver in the women’s 200m T35.
There was some controversy in the pool, as the Aussies came in second in the women’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay 34 Points after both Great Britain and USA teams were disqualified for both leaving the blocks too early in the first changeover.
Other Australian medal winners from over the weekend include Jake Michel in the men’s 100m breaststroke SB14 and Samuel von Einem in the men’s table tennis singles C11.
Overall Australia has eight gold medals, 15 silver and 13 bronze.