Medal tally frustrates Israel chief

“I was able to show variation with my punches. My manager was happy and described it as a ‘mature perfomance’.”

Burnham, who became a father earlier this year, hopes to return to the ring before the end of the year.

PARALYMPICS RON Bolotin insists the overall quality of the Paralympics has improved after Israel’s squad returned home from Rio with three bronze medals.

Swimmer Inbal Pezaro was Israel’s only medal-winner during the second week of competition. She finished third in 3:38:20 behind Norway’s Sarah Louise Rung (3:15:83) and Spain’s Teresa Perales (3:36:14) in the 200 metres individual medley.

The 29-year-old from Kibbutz Yizrael in north-eastern Israel had previously won eight medals — four silver and four bronze — in the Athens, Beijing and London Paralympics, including three bronze medals in 2012. She reached three other finals in Rio but was disappointed to be only coming home with one medal.

Pezaro, who has been paralysed from the waist down since birth due to a rare spinal disorder, said: “I feel that I missed out. I didn’t succeed in bringing out my full ability and that frustrates me as over the past year I’ve shown that I’m worth more.”

Reflecting on Israel’s medal tally, which fell short of the eight secured at London 2012, Bolotin, the head of the Israel Paralympics Committee, said: “We knew all along we would struggle to reach the figure from the previous Paralympics. The competition has got tougher and is fully professional in every sense.”

Israel’s other medals came through Moran Samuel in the women’s singles 1,000m sculls and Doron Shaziri in the 50m rifle 3 positions event.