Men

In a rematch of the 2023 Parapan American Games final, Brazil once again got the better of USA, easing away in the second-half to win 13-8 after a tight and entertaining first period.

Five goals from Leomon Moreno and a hat-trick from Andre Dantas saw the defending champions made it successive wins but USA, in their first game of the competition, USA matched them initially with Calahan Young showing his variety of shots with six goals.

Christian King scored his first Paralympic goal and was proud of that moment and his teams’ effort: ‘on paper Brazil are the best team in the world but we came out fighting and it’s a hard feat for a team to go toe to toe with them.’

Iran’s first Paralympic match since losing to Finland in the 2012 quarter-final saw them survive a second-half France fightback to win 12-8 and mark a successful return to top-level competition.

Qualifying for Paris by winning last year’s Asian Championships, their talisman Hasan Jafari netted nine times as France fell to a second close defeat.

Ukraine kept up their 100% record with an entertaining 9-8 win over Japan who by contrast, have lost both of their matches by one goal in Paris.

Vasyl Oliinyk scored four times for the second straight match as they gained revenge for losing to the same opponents in the 2023 World Games semi-final.

Women

China claimed a surprise 7-5 win over Turkey, scoring six unanswered goals, to leave the Paralympic champions without a win after two matches in Paris.

It was the perfect way for China to start their tournament with Chunyan Wang scoring all her side’s goals, including four penalties, to leave Turkey facing a must-win match tomorrow (Friday) against Israel if they are to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Israel got their Paris campaign off to the best possible start with an 8-4 victory over Brazil in a repeat scoreline of their last meeting in the 2022 World Championships.

Lihi Ben David and Or Mizrahi scored four goals apiece for the Tokyo quarter-finalists and while Jessica Vitorino netted a brace, Brazil remain without a win, after their previous draw with Turkey and face a battle to progress.

Despite their goals, Israel coach Raz Shoham insists they can be better at the other end of the court: ‘we can improve in defence as conceding four goals is too much. One goal is the maximum for us but we will watch the video and see the mistakes.’

Japan made it six points from a possible six with a tense and hard-fought victory over Canada courtesy of Norika Hagiwara’s late strike.

The Japanese number six remains the only player from her side to score in Paris as they came back from conceding early to Emma Reinke.

Despite their first loss of the competition, Brieann Baldock was encouraged by their performance: ‘our defensive technique in both games has been very strong and the fact we can go out there against Japan who are a very good team in such a tight game is a really huge goal for us.’