Israel took home six medals from the Paralympic Games in Beijing.
The team finished 53rd in the medal standings with five silvers — three by swimmer Inbal Pezaro — and a bronze. Closing ceremonies were held Wednesday.
The host country China finished with 211 medals, including 89 golds, to lead the pack, with Great Britain second with 102 medals and the United States third with 99.
Pezaro, at 21 the youngest member of the Israeli Paralympic delegation, had won two medals in Athens in 2004. She is from Kibbutz Emek Yisrael and volunteered for the Israeli army as a swim instructor. Pezaro was born with a spinal disorder that left both legs paralyzed.
Doron Shaziri, 41, won a silver medal in the men’s R7-50m free rifle 3×40-SH1 final on Sept. 10. Shaziri had won silver medals in shooting at Sydney in 2000 and took two bronze medals in Athens in 2004. Serving as a sniper in Lebanon for the Israel Defense Forces, he stepped on a landmine. He makes sports wheelchairs for a living.
Rower Eli Nawi won a bronze Sept. 11 in the men’s single sculls-A in the first year the Paralympics awarded medals in the event.
In second quad doubles wheelchair tennis, the unseeded duo of Boaz Kramer and Sharaga Weinberg lost Sept. 13 in the gold-medal match, 6-0, 4-6, 6-2, to the top-seeded defending champions Nick Taylor and David Wagner of the United States.
Israel’s Olympic team competing this summer in Beijing won one medal.
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