Iraq’s Najla Imad wins Asian Para Games table tennis gold

BAGHDAD — Iraqi para table tennis player Najla Imad won gold at the 2026 Asian Para Games in Nagoya, Japan, on Tuesday, beating China’s Liu Xiaowu 3-1 in the women’s singles Class 6 final, the Iraqi National Paralympic Committee said.

Imad lost only one game in the whole tournament, in the final. Louay al-Saray, president of the Iraqi Paralympic Table Tennis Federation, credited preparation, planning and cooperation between the federation and the coaching staff, and coach Haider Salim, who prepared her technically and mentally and developed the strategies that won the title.

Imad, from Diyala, won Iraq’s first Paralympic gold medal at the 2024 Paris Games, beating Ukraine’s Maryna Lytovchenko 3-1 in the Class 6 final to become the first Iraqi woman to win Paralympic gold. She also won gold at the 2022 Asian Para Games, held in Hangzhou, China, in 2023, and took another international gold in Finland on Aug. 29. President Nizar Amedi received her at Baghdad’s Peace Palace in September. Imad lost both legs and her right forearm in a bombing in Baqubah in 2008, when she was 3, and took up table tennis at 10.