Turkey retain Paralympic gold in women’s goalball

AFP | Paris, France

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Turkey won the gold medal match in the women’s goalball at the Paris Paralympics yesterday, handsomely defeating Israel 8-3 to claim their third consecutive Paralympic title. After tasting gold at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, the Turkish women’s team have now won gold in all three of the appearances at the Paralympics. After seventh- and sixthplaced finishes at the past two Games for Israel, their silver medal performance at Paris 2024 marked their first podium finish in women’s goalball.

The reigning world and European champions flew out of the traps against Israel by scoring two goals inside the first two minutes, courtesy of Sevda Altunoluk and Fatma Gul Guler. Israel called for a time-out just after Turkey’s third and then immediately struck back through Lihi Ben David to make it 3-1. However, a team penalty against Israel, which was duly converted by Guler, and another goal seconds later from Altunoluk pushed Turkey further ahead.

The Turks added two more goals before Ben David doubled up to take the sides into half-time with the score at 7-2. The second period started cagily until Altunoluk scored her fourth of the match with a fine cross-court effort that flew into the bottom corner. Israel’s Ben David got her third with just under five minutes to go Israel to reduce the score to 8-3. But the Israelis were unable to find the net again as Turkey defended their titles from Rio and Tokyo.

Turkey’s Altunoluk finished top-scorer of the gold medal match on four goals, with Ben David the only scorer for silver-medallists Israel. Earlier, China eased past Brazil 6-0 to take the bronze medal.