It’s Day 2 here at the Makuhari Messe Hall A and we have already seen some great games on Day 1.
The day’s programme will see previous Paralympics medallists starting their quest for a Paralympic medal. On the men’s side, 2016 gold medallists Iran will play against Germany, the last team to grab the Paralympic berth last June. The European team is looking to repeat or exceed their podium feat from nine years ago. Brazil will start their campaign against China and will seek to improve on their last Paralympic result of missing the podium by one place.
Makuhari Messe got its warm up for #Tokyo2020 with a practice match between #GER and #IRI on Thursday.
TOKYO 2020 #SITTINGVOLLEYBALL INFO ⏬ | Photos: Daniele Celesti
— World ParaVolley (@ParaVolley) August 26, 2021
On the women’s side, defending champions USA will seek to retain their title and will play 2019 African champions Rwanda, which is led by Paralympic flag bearer Liliane Mukobwankawe. Multiple Paralympic medallists China will then close the day with their match against 2019 European champions RPC.
It’s not the #Paralympics if there’s no traditional Agitos photo at the Athletes’ Village, right?
Here’s some early entries from our #SittingVolleyball athletes 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/a8fNQOdOYm
— World ParaVolley (@ParaVolley) August 24, 2021
Meanwhile, Brazil captain Nathalie Filomena shared her thoughts at the end of their thrilling five-set encounter with Canada on opening day. Natalia was ecstatic about their win against Canada, especially since her team had not been able to play together for a long time because of the COVID situation.
She shared that they could only practice individually in their homes, and from the time they could unite, they were unable to find opponents as some teams were keen to travel to Brazil. She stated that it was a very difficult time for the team and the win made it sweeter for them.
As a sport teacher, Natalia said that she misses the kids from school as she had not been able to interact with them for a while, but she knows that they are all cheering for her and the team.
