Tunis — The Tunisian Paralympics team has achieved its best performance ever in the history of its participation in the Paralympics Games by earning 21 medals in all, including 9 gold medals, 9 silver medals and 3 bronze medals at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics Games.

The achievement was portent of another one: thanks to the results of its athletes, the Tunisian team ended in 15 th place out of the 69 nations which took part in the event. Tunisia, precedes Japan, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy and the Czech Republic; it ranks first in the Arab world and second in Africa.

The new champions are called Farhat Chida, the winner of two gold medals in the 400 meters and the long jump, Soumaya Bousaid the winner respectively of the 800 meters and the 1500 meters and Mourad Idoudi, with two gold medals in the Javelin and the club throw.

The creation in 1987 of the Tunisian Paralympics Federation, has given a great impetus to sports activities among the disabled. In 1992 there were 404 paralympic athletes in Tunisia, today there are some 4000, belonging to 141 associations.

Observers note that the team's excellent results in Beijing, demonstrates the success of the Tunisian approach in terms of the social promotion of the disabled in the country.

On Thursday, President Ben Ali and his spouse welcomed in person at the airport, the Tunisian Paralympics team which had returned from Beijing, congratulating the athletes and the technical staff for their performance which he said "honors Tunisian sport."