Nemati among winners at Asian Para Archery Champs

Zahra Nemati has cemented her status as Iran’s best recurve archer by collecting her country a quota space for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games at the continental qualifier in Bangkok, Thailand, held 11-19 November.

The London 2012 Paralympic champion went on to win the recurve women’s open competition at the Bangkok 2015 Asian Para Archery Championships.

Nemati had already qualified a Rio 2016 Olympic space for Iran at the able-bodied Asian Championships, in the same venue, preceding the para-event.

Nemati is 42nd in the able-bodied world rankings and 15th in the para-world rankings.

The last archer to compete in both Games in the same year was Italy’s Paola Fantato at Atlanta 1996. Paola won five Paralympic gold medals, three individually, over a para-archery career that saw her attend each Paralympic Games from 1988 to 2004.

Nemati’s teammates Majid Kakoosh won Iran the lone available W1 men’s quota place.

China had three gold medals at the event: recurve man Zhao Lixue, compound man Zhang Wenhui and woman Lin Yueshan.

South Korea’s Jang Dae Sung won the men’s and women’s combined W1 championships.

China, Japan, Mongolia and Thailand also secured Paralympic invitations. Japan had not qualified any athletes at the summer’s World Archery Para Championships in Donaueschingen, Germany.

Asia Paralympic quota places:

China – 2 (1 recurve woman open, 1 compound men open)

Iran – 2 (1 recurve women open, 1 W1 men)

Japan – 1 (1 compound women open)

Mongolia – 1 (1 recurve men open)

Thailand – 2 (1 recurve men open, compound men open)

Complete results from the Bangkok 2015 Asian Para Archery Championships can be found on World Archery’s website.