Monday morning continued to delight us with wonderful news fr om Japan — medal after medal! Today, tennis masters Dmitry Dolzhenkov and Vladislav Abramov, having gone through all stages undefeated, became champions of the 25th Summer Deaflympics in men's doubles!

In the final match, they secured a confident victory over German opponents Niklas Koehler and Luca Steen with a score of 6:2, 6:1. By the way, the Games are not over for Dmitry yet — he still has another final match in singles ahead, wh ere he will fight for the title of three-time Deaflympic champion.

On the wrestling mats of the Fuchu Kyodo-no-Mori Gymnasium, the heavyweight final up to 125 kg concluded, where Kaliningrad native Alexey Shemarov, representing Moscow and the Olympic Reserve Sports School "Yunost Moskvy" in freestyle wrestling, proved his complete dominance over Iranian athlete Shabani Mohammad Reza. Our wrestler finished the bout with a score of 10-0, despite fighting with one hand, as his left hand was injured in previous matches (a broken middle finger on his left hand) and was not fully functional. After the victory, Alexey took off his wrestling shoes, kissed the mat, and then took a victory lap to the applause of all present, thereby bidding farewell to his wrestling career. Alexey Shemarov is a two-time Deaflympic Games winner. Hooray! We wish Alexey health and success in his future coaching work.

Meanwhile, track and field athlete Iuliia Abubiakirova won a silver medal in her non-specialty distance — 5000 meters. Throughout all three starts, her rival was Esteves Mira da Silva M. fr om Portugal. In this final race, a fierce battle went literally to the last meters, wh ere three athletes finished almost simultaneously. However, the fastest was the Portuguese long-distance runner with a result of 17:26.23. Iuliia, even on this very long and unfamiliar distance for her, lost to her rival by only 0.55 hundredths of a second. Third place was taken by Kenyan Jelimo Viola (17:26.83).

At the Japan Cycling Center, mountain biker competitions were held in the men's and women's short track (XCC) discipline (a race on a short 900-meter, but very difficult looped course with climbs on cross-country terrain). Fifteen women competed, racing through 9 extremely difficult laps with elevation changes (8.1 km). And here, the unrivaled winner was the young 19-year-old from Samara, Anna Poretskova, with the best result (22:40.24), who overtook Ukrainian Yelisaveta Topchaniuk (22:53.7). The bronze went to Poland's Patrycja Kuczynska (23:03.62). Aleksandra Evdokimova finished seventh.

Anna's initiative was picked up by our male mountain bikers, who raced 11 laps on the same looped segment (9.9 km). Aleksei Kudrin and his namesake Aleksei Bozhko left no chance to any of their other 25 opponents. Breaking away from the start and maintaining a furious pace lap after lap, they finished, sharing gold and silver between themselves with a difference of only 38 seconds. Aleksei Kudrin's result was 21:44.15. And the other Aleksei, Bozhko, finished in 22:22.87. Bravo to the conquerors of the mountain bends, who continued the success of their road-racing colleagues. Third place was literally clawed out by Polish rider Pawel Arciszewski (22:32.47).

At the aquatics palace, the swimmers finally won the long-awaited gold! Stepan Skosyrskii won a hard-fought victory in the 100-meter butterfly! For him, this is the first and most valuable gold medal at the Deaflympic Games.

Taekwondo athlete, Mahachkala native Shamil Isakov, in the 80 kg weight category, very confidently defeated Korean Sanggyu Choe in the final match and rightfully won the Games' gold medal.

In his first match, Shamil was "seeded" with the Olympic champion from the Brazilian Deaflympics. In this difficult, emotionally charged match, Shamil did not give his opponent a moment of confidence. In the next battle with a very promising athlete, Muhammad Usmonov from Uzbekistan, our Dagestani athlete, demonstrating filigree technique and a sense of distance, ended the match early due to a clear advantage. In the final, Shamil demonstrated class, experience, and considerable endurance, and for most of the segments was practically invulnerable to his opponent. The crushing score of the match, 2:0, spoke for itself. Victory!

We congratulate the athlete and his personal coach Aziz Magomedov, as well as the entire coaching staff on this phenomenal achievement!

The result of the penultimate day of the Games: 24 gold, 7 silver, and 2 bronze medals!

Boris Dvornikov, Senior Athletics Coach:

“Hello everyone from Tokyo! The results of the 25th Summer Deaflympics in Tokyo show that the coaching staff of the national team made the right choice in determining the team lineup! This is the merit not only of the national team's coaching staff but also of the personal trainers who prepared the athletes, the medical staff, our leadership, local organizations, and many others who contributed their share of work for the common victory! Thank you all for supporting us throughout all the days of the Games and sincerely rejoicing at the victories of our Russian athletes, even though they are competing under the name DINA. THANK YOU!”

Text: Nurlan Tazhigulov, Maria Mazhenina

Photos: Mikhail Sinitsyn, Valery Vykhodtsev, Boris Dvornikov, Valery Kobzarenko, Andrey Khegai, Ilya Sarykin, Alexey Shemarov

Translation: Daria Kudelina