Paralympic cyclist dies of heart failure after a collision during a race

WITH Britain winning a record number of medals in the Rio Paralympic games and coming second after China, all of the celebrations became muted after the news that Iranian cyclist Bahman Golbarnezhad aged 48 had died from a cardiac arrest following a collision with another cyclist during a race on September 17.

He was alive when the ambulance arrived and rushed to a local hospital but sadly the cyclist who had competed in the London Games died soon after being taken into the emergency room.

The Iranian flag has been lowered to half-mast in the Paralympic Village and a period of silence will be observed during the closing ceremony on Sunday September 18.

The BBC reported that Masoud Ashrafi, the secretary general of Iran’s National Paralympic Committee, said it had requested the body of Golbarnezhad be flown to Iran on Sunday. The Committee also asked for a full report of the incident from the IPC.

This is the first death during a competition at a summer Olympics or Paralympics since Danish cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen in the 100km team time trial at the 1960 Rome Olympics although 11 Israeli hostages were killed during the 1972 Munich Olympics by terrorists.