Turkmen athlete Mayagozel Ekayeva took the sixth place in the para powerlifting tournament at the Paralympic Games in Paris. The 38-year-old international-class master of sports from Ashgabat competed in the weight category up to 86 kg, in which 10 athletes contested medals.
Para powerlifting is an adapted version of weightlifting for athletes with disabilities, where the only discipline is bench press.
The only representative of Turkmenistan at the Paralympic Games in Paris, Mayagozel Ekayeva, effectively used two of the three scoring attempts, fixing a projectile weighing 107 and 112 kg in turn. Yang Jiwon from the Republic of Korea, who finished fifth, beat her by 3 kg.
Tayana Medeiros from Brazil became the champion of the XVII Summer Paralympic Games in this weight category with a result of 156 kg. Only 1 kg was lost to her by the world record holder (159 kg) Feifei Zheng from China. Bronze with a score of 134 kg was awarded to Marion Alejandro Serrano Guajardo from Chile.
This is not the first Paralympics for Mayagozel Ekayeva. In 2008, in Beijing, with a result of 82.5 kg, she took 7th place in the weight category up to 56 kg, and in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro – 5th with a result of 105 kg in the weight up to 73 kg. She also has bronze medals at the 2010 and 2014 Asian Para Games and 5th place at the 2023 World Championships in Dubai.
