Since first qualifying for the Paralympics in 2000, Bosnia and Herzegovina have never finished outside of the podium and they made a big move to maintaining that record when they sealed their second Pool A win in as many matches. The Balkan powerhouse extended their winning streak at the Paris 2024 Paralympics after outclassing Egypt in their opening game in the French capital and then taking care of Kazakhstan.

The Bosnians won a closely-contested first set before racing into a 2-0 lead with a dominant performance in the second. However, Kazakhstan fought back to level matters and force a decider against the European champions. Bosnia and Herzegovina showed their mettle by claiming a 15-8 victory in the fifth set and became the first team to qualify for the semi-finals.

The players guided by head coach Ifet Mahmutovic showed resilience and emerged victorious after a tied match in five sets (24-26, 13-25, 25-14, 25-21, 8-15).  Bosnia and Herzegovina were more successful on the blocking, with 14 to six kill blocks, and managed to record more points from their opponents’ errors: 42 to 20. Kazakhstan, on the other hand, finished with more points from attacking (58 to 43), and more aces: 11 to two.

Mirzet Duran of the winner’s side again raised above the competition, becoming the top scorer for his team with 20 points. For Kazakhstan, Perdebay Namuratov topped the charts with 31 points.

"We hoped this was going to be much easier," said Bosnia and Herzegovina's Stevan Crnobrnja."In the end, we won the game through our will to win."

Later in the same pool, Egypt raced to a straight-sets win against France to secure their first win of the tournament. Despite a partisan 3,800 fans packed into the Paris North Arena, France were unable to trouble the Egyptians as they fell to back-to-back defeats.

Egypt and Kazakhstan will face off on Monday with the winner set for a place in the semis, while Bosnia will seek to maintain their 100 percent record when they play France.

Reigning champions Iran, featuring the towering Morteza Mehrzad, return to action on Sunday when they meet Brazil in Pool B.

In the women’s category, Slovenia, who are competing in Pool B in the preliminary round, recorded their first victory at the Paralympics. The players around head coach Simon Bozic outclassed their opponents of Rwanda at 3-1 (25-19, 23-25, 25-14, 25-22).

Statistically, the Slovenians finished better on attack, 40 to 34 winning spikes, and recorded more aces: 20 to nine. Both Slovenia and Rwanda finished with ten blocks each.

Klara Vrabic topped the charts with 24 points while for Rwanda Liliane Mukobwankawe finished with 12.