News Fourteen of the 20 teams that will dispute the goalball competition at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games have now been decided The Turkish men’s team and the Ukrainian women’s side are the latest to qualify after the European championships in Kaunas, Lithuania Turkey, who won the bronze medal at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, secured the men’s European title by defeating Finland, the reigning Paralympic champions The Turks join Brazil, Finland, USA, Lithuania, China and Sweden as the teams so far confirmed for Rio Ukraine’s women will make their Paralympic Games debut in Rio after they qualified by finishing third in Lithuania As the new European champions Turkey and second-placed Russia had already won places at next year’s Paralympic Games, the Ukrainians took the qualifying spot Brazil, USA, Israel and China are the other teams already confirmed for Rio There will be 10 teams of each gender at Rio 2016 and the next places will be decided at Toronto 2015 Parapan Games in August Follow the race to qualify for the Paralympic Games here Rio2016 com is not an absolute authority on qualification for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which is an ongoing process Final places will only be confirmed in July 2016 (for the Olympic Games) and August 2016 (for the Paralympic Games) The qualification systems are defined by each sport’s respective International Federation and the International Olympic Committee or International Paralympic Committee, and are subject to change When an athlete or team wins a quota place for their nation, the final decision on whether this ‘slot’ is used and which athletes are sent is taken by the respective National Olympic Committee or National Paralympic Committee (NOC or NPC) Even when athletes win a ‘nominal’ place for themselves, NOCs/NPCs may have to decide who to send if the number of qualified athletes from one country exceeds the quota |