Jordan and Japan strike Gold, China tops the medals table
Asian nations were on the podium in all four medal events in the Powerlifting competitions at the Tokyo International Forum on Day Two of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
First up it was Jordan’s Omar Qarada who secured his country’s first Gold medal since the Sydney 2000 Games. Qarada lifted 173kg to secure the Men’s -49kg Powerlifting title, beating world record holder and Rio Paralympic champion Vietnam’s le van Cong into second place.
In the end it all came down to 100g as le Van also lifted 173kg but was awarded the silver medal due to his slightly heavier body weight – he weighed in at 47.31kg where as Qarada was 47.21kg.
The next event also saw Asia nations occupy the top two places on the podium again when China’s Lingling GUO beat Indonesia’s Ni Nengah WIDIASIH in the Women’s -41kg event. GUO lifted 108kg to win the event but then lifted 109kg to set a new World and Paralympic record.
China secured their second Powerlifting medal of the day when Zhe CUI won Silver in the Women’s -45kg event, some kilograms behind Nigeria’s Latifat TIJANI who secured her country’s first medal of the Tokyo Games.
In the final event, Kazakhstan’s David DEGTYAREV took Gold in the Men’s -54kg final which also got his country onto the medal table.
In the Track Cycling, China’s legendary cyclist Zhangyu LI had to settle for Bronze in the C1 3000m Individual Pursuit final, the event in which he won one of his two Gold medals in Rio. His fellow countryman, Guihua LIANG also won bronze in the Men’s C2 Individual Pursuit having won Gold in both London and Rio in the same event. Both athletes will compete again on the track in the C1-3 100m Time Trial which takes place tomorrow (27th August).
After their dominant display yesterday at the Wheelchair Fencing where they took a clean sweep of all four Gold medals on offer, China’s hopes were high for today’s Épée Individual events. Shumei TAN won her second Gold medal of the Games in the Women’s Épée Individual Category B event but her fellow countrymen couldn’t quite repeat their amazing achievements of the previous day but still won a Silver and two more Bronze medals. Thailand also made it onto the podium and kickstarted their push for medals when Saysunee JANA took bronze in the Épée Individual Category B bronze medal bout.
At the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, Japan’s Takayuki SUZUKI added to yesterday’s bronze medal in style, winning the host country’s first Gold medal in the Men’s 100m Freestyle S4. Adding to the Japanese medal tally, fellow countryman Uchu TOMITA took silver in the Men’s 400m Freestyle S11 event. China won Gold in the Mixed 4 x 50m Freestyle Relay 20 points event, breaking the World Record that they set in Rio in the process. They also bagged two silver and four bronze medals which saw them top the medal table over-night.
The medal tally at the end of Day 2 for Asian Nations looks like this (rank is the position on the overall medal table):
| Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | ||
| 1 | China | 8 | 5 | 10 | 23 |
| 12 | Japan | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 15 | Jordan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 15 | Kazakhstan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 15 | Singapore | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 25 | Indonesia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 25 | Vietnam | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 33 | Thailand | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 33 | Uzbekistan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Tomorrow sees the start of the Athletics with fourteen medals up for grabs, the Judo will also start with four medals in contention. The Archery will also commence and will see the first ever para-athlete from Bhutan compete when Pema RIGSEL takes part in the Ranking Round of the Men’s Individual Recurve event.
