Cuban Omara Durand elected to the Athletes Council of the International Paralympic Committee

The Cuban athleteOmara Durand Elías She was elected among 22 candidates to join the Athletes' Council of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), with a mandate until Paris 2024.

Durand was elected in the vote held from August 19 to September 3 in Tokyo 2020, a competition in which the woman from Santiago had a commendable performance.by winning the gold medal in the 100, 200 and 400 meters, category T12 (deep visual impairment).

“The closing ceremony of these XVI Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games takes place and Omara Durand Elías is elected as a member of the board of directors of the IPC Athletes Committee. Another triumph for our champion, another triumph for Cuba,” Raúl Fornés Valenciano, head of the Cuban delegation in the Japanese capital, celebrated on Twitter.

The 22 candidates presented for the election represented a record number. In total, 2,447 athletes voted, which expresses a participation of 55.5 percent, 1.5 percent more than in Rio de Janeiro 2016.

The council is in principle made up of a total of nine parathletes, including six from the summer competitions and another three from the winter competitions,noted the EFE news agency.

Along with Durand, the Italian athlete Martina Caironi, the swimmers Daniel Dias, from Brazil, and Takayuki Suzuki, from Japan, the basketball player from the Netherlands Jitske Visser and the Iranian goalkeeper Zahra Nemati were chosen.

In addition to the nine elected members, the Council may appoint three additional members for two-year terms, in order to ensure balance of gender, regions, sports and disability groups. It also has a formally appointed member of the International Olympic Committee's Athletes' Commission.

The Athletes Council acts as a link between athletes and officials and influences how Paralympic sport and the movement can grow and develop.

Durand had a fantastic performance at the Olympic Games in the Japanese capital, where he finished with a world record of 23.02 seconds in the double hectometer final, and now has eight titles in this type of event. He also improved the mark of 23.05 seconds set in Rio de Janeiro. The woman from Santiago has not lost a race for more than 10 years.

The delegation ofCuba concluded its presentation at the Tokyo Paralympic Games with 35th place in the medal table, after obtaining four gold medals, one silver and one bronze, falling below the results in Rio de Janeiro 2016, when he achieved 15 medals, distributed in eight gold, one silver and six bronze, which allowed him to place himself then in 18th place.