Queen Rania congratulates Kingdom's Paralympic team

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department - Amman) Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah sent a cable congratulating Jordanian athletes on their achievements at the Athens Paralympics which came to a close in the Greek capital. 

In a cable to HRH Prince Raad, president of the Jordan Sports Federation for the Handicapped, Queen Rania lauded the team’s accomplishments, their determination to win and raise the Jordanian flag on the world’s sporting stage.

The Queen thanked Prince Raad for his concerted efforts and support of sports for the disabled which has gained recognition for Jordan through impressive performances on the international level.

Jamil Shibli won silver in the shot put event of the athletics competition while the women’s table tennis team (Khitam Abu Awad and Fatima Azzam) won bronze.

A record 10 disabled athletes had qualified to the Sept 17-28 Paralympics including the only athlete to ever win a Paralympic gold medal for Jordan: wheelchair table tennis ace Maha Barghouti.

Jordan was represented by four qualifiers in table tennis, three qualifiers in athletics and three power lifters.

Sports for the disabled has been an achiever for the Kingdom with the country’s sole gold medal win at the Olympic event coming at the Sydney 2000 Paralympics by Barghouti. The only other time Jordan's flag was hoisted during an Olympic event was at the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta when Imad Gharbawi won a silver medal in the discus.