China Extends Lead at Paris Paralympics with Track Success, Petrucio Ferreira dos Santos Wins Third Straight 100m Title

Aug. 30, 2024, 10:38 p.m.

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China asserted its customary dominance at the Paris Paralympics on Friday, surging ahead of Great Britain despite a double gold medal triumph for British swimmers.

The Chinese team, consistent medal leaders at every Paralympics since Athens 2004, concluded the second day of competition with 12 gold medals, a performance highlighted by three golds on the inaugural day of the athletics program.

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Great Britain currently holds six gold medals, with Tully Kearney, who lives with cerebral palsy, and Maisie Summers-Newton successfully defending their titles from the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago.

Kearney won the women’s 100m freestyle in the S5 category while Summers-Newton, who was born with achondroplasia, a condition that affects bone development, came home first in the women’s 200m individual medley SM6.

“I was really nervous, it’s something that’s come from Tokyo,” Summers-Newton, a qualified primary school teacher, told reporters.

“There’s a lot of pressure being Paralympic champion.”

Earlier, Zhou Xia won China’s first gold medal of the athletics events when she sprinted to the women’s T35 100m title, for competitors with impaired coordination, in a time of 13.58sec.

🇨🇳Zhou Xia defends her title in the women's 100m T35!

🥇Rio 2016

🥇Tokyo 2020

🔼@Paris2024#ParaAthletics @Paralympics @asianparalympic pic.twitter.com/CZodz49GVq

— Para Athletics (@ParaAthletics) August 30, 2024 Di Dongdong added the men’s long jump title for athletes with visual impairment by smashing the world record with a 6.85m jump and Wen Xiaoyan added a gold in the T37 women’s 200m.

Advertisement Israeli celebration

The wheelchair tennis competition commenced at Roland Garros, the venue for the French Open, under overcast skies and early morning showers.

A large crowd, including a sizeable Israeli contingent, filed into the Suzanne Lenglen court to support singles player Adam Berdichevsky against Italy’s Luca Arca.

After securing a 6-2, 7-5 victory, Berdichevsky, accompanied by his wife and three children, celebrated by grabbing an Israeli flag and running around the court waving it proudly.

Israel’s Adam Berdichevsky in action against Italy’s Luca Arca during the men’s wheelchair singles tennis first round match at the Roland Garros Stadium during the Paralympic Games in Paris. AP During the October 7 attack on Israel, Berdichevsky, his wife and three children hid in their house for several hours as Hamas fighters entered Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, just two miles from Gaza.

The family were eventually evacuated to a safe house.

Berdichevsky stated that this experience has given him a new perspective on life.

“I think it helps mentally because since then for me nothing is really important. If I lose, I lose. If I win, I win.”

Morteza Mehrzad, an Iranian sitting volleyball legend who stands at a towering 8ft 1in (2.46m), played a key role in securing a comfortable 3-0 victory for his country against Ukraine as they began their pursuit of a fourth Paralympic title in the past five Games.

In front of an enthusiastic Stade de France crowd of around 45,000 in the evening session, Brazil’s Petrucio Ferreira dos Santos, the fastest Paralympian in the world, won a third consecutive 100m title in the T47 class in a time of 10.68sec despite a track dotted with puddles.

Advertisement GOOOLD for Petrucio Ferreira 👏🇧🇷

He's done it again! A third Paralympic gold medal for this incredible athlete. 🤩#Paris2024 | #Paralympics pic.twitter.com/RMlIlX2zjJ

— Paralympic Games (@Paralympics) August 30, 2024 Ferreira, who at the age of two lost his left arm below the elbow in an accident with a grinding machine, won gold medals in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 and smashed the para-world record in 2022 when he posted a time of 10.29sec.

Advertisement “I’m happy, lightning has struck for the third time at the Paralympic Games and I’m coming home with another medal,” Ferreira said.

“That’s three golds now at the Paralympics. It’s an emotion that’s hard to describe.”

His compatriot Julio Agripino dos Santos had earlier kicked off the athletics programme by winning the men’s T11 5,000m gold with a guide runner in a world record.