We can’t believe we are on the second to last day of the Deaflympics already! The last week and a half have been a whirlwind of action across all the sports and Day 10 was no different!
Here we’re bringing you all the news from Men’s Football, Mountain Biking, Swimming, Athletics and Tennis. Did we mention the medals?!?!
Football
The Men’s GB Team were up against the Ukraine in the match to determine 5th and 6th place. Ukraine are currently top of the Deaflympics Medal Table, with an astounding 57 medals won!
They proved a little too strong for the GB Team today though with the final result 2-1 to Ukraine and our team coming in 6th place overall for the tournament.
That’s not the end of the football though. The women’s team are back in action on the final day of the Deaflympics to compete for the Bronze medal.
Cycling
Waldo Moolman was back in action in the Men’s Short Track, Cross Country Mountain Biking today. He did very well, maintaining an average speed of 23.5km/h throughout! It wasn’t enough for a podium place though and Waldo was flagged out after 4 laps, finishing in 13th position.
He’s back in action tomorrow though in the Olympic distance race – good luck Waldo!
‘Every time we went downhill there were so many potential crashes. And then after almost crashing it’s hard work to catch up to the first group again.’ Waldo Moolman, Cyclist
Athletics
Today also saw Evie Smith coming in 12th in the 5000m race. We’ve got one final race in the athletics though, with Poppy Bowie competing in the Marathon on the final day!
Tennis
It was a disappointment for Esah Hayat and Peter Fletcher in their last doubles match of the Deaflympics too. They’ve played so well throughout the tournament but lost out to the German pair in the match to determine Bronze Medal position.
‘Esah and I want to thank everybody and thank Japan for hosting. Plus all the important GB Team; the physios, coaches, support staff and the media. Plus all the people who have come out to watch different sports. Thank you, its been fantastic.’ – Lewis Fletcher, Tennis
Swimming
Back at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre the medals kept on coming for Charlotte Gower and Katy Wun! First Charlotte took Gold in the 100m Backstroke, closely followed by another Gold for Katy in the 800m Freestyle. Between them the women have bagged 8 medals for DeaflympicsGB!
What’s happening on the final day…
Tomorrow is the last day of action in Tokyo and we’re exctited to see if we can push that medal tally up some more before the games closes! The last swimming races are tomorrow…will Katy and Charlotte add to their medal haul?!
We’ll also see the Women’s GB Football team play for a Bronze medal and we’ve got the Marathon and one last cycling race.
UK Deaf Sport Chief Executive Chris Ratcliffe has written his latest blog, Looking Through The Shop Window, on the differences in government funding for different countries taking part in the Deaflympics. A really interesting thought piece on just how many medals the DeaflympicsGB Team could be bringing home if they did have funding.
You can keep up with the the action as it happens on our Instagram channel and get the in-depth news, pictures, videos and medal tally on the DeaflympicsGB website.