Turkiye won the women's gold medal match, handsomely defeating its rival 8-3 to claim its third consecutive Paralympic title.

Goalball is played exclusively by athletes who are blind or vision impaired. It was invented in 1946 to help rehabilitate veterans who had lost their sight during the Second World War. Players must wear opaque eyeshades at all times ensuring fair competition. All international athletes must be legally blind, meaning they have less than 10 per cent vision, and are classified as a B3, a B2, or a B1 – totally blind.

After tasting gold at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, the Turkish women's team have now won gold in all three of their appearances at the Paralympics.

After seventh- and sixth-placed finishes at the past two Games for Israel, their silver medal performance at Paris 2024 marked their first podium finish in women's goalball.

The reigning world and European champions flew out of the traps against Israel by scoring two goals inside the first two minutes, courtesy of Sevda Altunoluk and Fatma Gul Guler.

Israel called for a time-out just after Turkey's third and then immediately struck back through Lihi Ben David to make it 3-1. However, a team penalty against Israel, which was duly converted by Guler, and another goal seconds later from Altunoluk pushed Turkey further ahead.

The Turks added two more goals before Ben David doubled up to take the sides into half-time with the score at 7-2.

The second period started cagily until Altunoluk scored her fourth of the match with a fine cross-court effort that flew into the bottom corner. Israel's Ben David got her third with just under five minutes to go Israel to reduce the score to 8-3.

But the Israelis were unable to find the net again as Turkey defended their titles from Rio and Tokyo.

Turkey's Altunoluk finished top-scorer of the gold medal match on four goals, with Ben David the only scorer for silver-medallists Israel.

Earlier, China eased past Brazil 6-0 to take the bronze medal.

As for the men,  Sano Yuto scored the golden goal to give Japan victory against Ukraine by 4-3 after extra time in the South Paris Arena, marking a strong improvement on their fifth-placed finish at their home Games three years ago.

In front of a capacity crowd, Japan broke the deadlock through Kazuya Kaneko and Koji Miyajiki to take a 2-0 lead inside the opening three minutes. But Ukraine struck back, first via Anton Strelchyk and then through a Vasyl Oliinyk penalty, to level the score going into the break.

Japan came within inches of retaking the lead two minutes into the second period, only for Ukraine's Oleksandr Toporkov to charge back and grab the ball right on the line. They did soon restore their lead in a tense second half, however, when Sano powered a throw through the Ukrainian defence to make it 3-2 to the Japanese.

Ukraine tried to force the issue but the solid black-and-red wall Japan's trio had constructed in front of their goal held fast until two minutes from time. Strelchyk's throw was only half-parried away and the ball squirmed into the goal to make it 3-3, forcing extra time.

Yuto then fired in the winning goal to spark wild celebrations as Japan became Paralympic champions for the first time.

Goalball made its Paralympic debut in Toronto, Canada, in 1976, with the women’s event being added at the 1984 Paralympic Games in New York, USA. The first World Championships for goalball were held in Vocklamarck, Austria, in 1978.

Eight nations of each gender took part at Paris 2024 – a reduction from 10 at previous editions. France, Brazil, China, Japan, Iran, USA, Ukraine and Egypt lined up for the men; the women’s field was made up of host France, South Korea, Turkey, China, Brazil, Japan, Israel and Canada.