Vicente Pereira excelled in swimming, while handball won its first collective medal.
Portugal closed the third day of the International Federation of Athletes with Intellectual Disabilities (VIRTUS) Global Games with its first collective medal in handball, three podium finishes in athletics and four in swimming, with Vicente Pereira winning two gold medals and setting two new world records.
On Wednesday, the handball team bid farewell to the competition, held in Vichy, France, with the silver medal after being beaten in the final by their Polish counterparts (20-24).
In swimming for athletes with Down’s syndrome, Portugal ended the day with four medals, highlighting double gold and world records for Vicente Pereira in the 100-meter butterfly and 50-meter freestyle II2. André Almeida also won gold in the 400-meter freestyle, an event in which João Vez also took silver.
In athletics, Portuguese athletes won three new medals: Lenine Cunha, already gold medallist in the triple jump, took silver in the heptathlon, Igor Oliveira also took silver in the 100-metre dash and Sandro Baessa won bronze in the 400-metre hurdles.
The Portuguese futsal and basketball teams finished first in the group stages of the tournaments, beating Spain 11-2 and Poland 87-35 respectively.
In the 10-kilometer road cycling time trial, Carlos Carvalho came 16th, while in table tennis, sisters Vitória and Cátia Andrade were eliminated from the competition.
Portugal, which won 14 medals after three days of competition, is represented at the VIRTUS Global Games, which run until June 10, by 57 athletes competing in nine disciplines.
Na última edição dos Global Games, disputada em Brisbane, na Austrália, em 2019, e que juntou atletas de 50 países, Portugal somou 13 medalhas: três de ouro, sete de prata e três de bronze.
