Chinese gold rush
China won 22 medals, 12 of which were Gold and started to show their traditional dominance of the medal table as the Athletics got underway on the third day of sport at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. They got off to a great start when they claimed of the Gold medals on offer in the morning session at the Olympic Stadium when DONG Feixa won the Women’s Discus Throw F55 and ZHOU Xia broke the World Record in the Women’s 100m T35. In other medals for Asia in the first session, Uzbekistan’s Asila MIRZAYOROVA jumped a Personal Best and took Silver in the Women’s Long Jump T11 and Japan picked up a Silver (Kenya KARASAWA) and the Bronze (Shinya WADA) in the Men’s 5000m T11 race.
This was followed by a further two Gold medals for China in the evening session when di Dongdong won the Men’s Long Jump T11 final to add to his Gold medal in the same event at the 2018 Asian Para Games and WEN Xiaoyan won the Women’s 200m T37 race, with her teammate JIANG Fenfen claiming silver. WEN set a new World Record in the process. Indonesia got off the mark at the athletics track when Saptoyoga PURNOMO took Bronze in the Men’s 100m T37 final setting an Asian record time and Japan had plenty to cheer about in the Men’s 400m T52 race when they took Gold (Tomoki SATO) and Bronze (Hirokazu UEYONABARU)
At the Izu Velodrome, China’s Zhangyu LI successfully defended his Rio title when he won Gold in the Men’s C1-3 1000m Time Trial and set a new World Record. Teammate Wangwei QIAN won bronze in the Women’s C1-3 500m Time Trial and also set a World Record for the C1 class in the process.
The first Judo medals were contested at the Nippon Budokan and Uzbekistan took the only Gold medal for Asia when Uchkun KURANBAEV won the Men’s -66kg Gold medal contest, defeating his Spanish opponent by Waza-Ari. Kazakhstan’s Anuar SARIYEV took Silver in the Men’s -69kg event and Japan’s Yujiro SETO claimed the Bronze in the Men’s -66kg Contest A. There was disappointment however for Uzbekistan’s Sherzod NAMOZOV who failed to defend his Rio Paralympic title in the Men’s -60kg event.
At the Powerlifting, the China took three of the four Gold medals on offer (Yongkai QI in the Men’s -59kg, Dandan HU in the Women’s -50kg and Lei LIU in the Men’s -65kg) and in the remaining event took Silver (Cuijuan XIAO in the Women’s -55kg) and Iran’s Amir JAFARI ARANGEH took Silver in the Men’s -65kg event.
At the Swimming, the only medals for Asian nations were won by China. They won nine medals overall, including a clean sweep of Gold, Silver and Bronze in the Men’s 50m Butterfly S5 event a race in which Tao ZHENG set a new World Record. Jia MA also set a new World Record in the Women’s 50m Freestyle S11.
In the Wheelchair Fencing, China won Gold in the Women’s Épée Team Match beating Ukraine whilst the Chinese Men’s team took Silver in their event, losing out to the Russian Paralympic Committee. Hong Kong‘s Women were disappointed to lose out in the Bronze medal match to the Russian Paralympic Committee.
At the end of the third day, having won an impressive twelve Gold medals, China have started to pull away at the top of the medal table and are currently eleven medals ahead of the second placed nation (Great Britain). Uzbekistan’s Judo Gold has seen them move up the table to 18th place.
The medal tally at the end of Day 3 for Asian Nations looks like this (rank is the position on the overall medal table):
| 1 | China | 20 | 11 | 14 | 45 |
| 13 | Japan | 2 | 3 | 4 | 9 |
| 18 | Uzbekistan | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 19 | Kazakhstan | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 26 | Jordan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 26 | Singapore | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 35 | Indonesia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 37 | I.R. Iran | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 37 | Vietnam | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 46 | Thailand | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Elsewhere in the team sports, Japan’s Wheelchair Rugby team beat Australia 57-53 to finish top of their pool which means they will face Great Britain in the Semi-final tomorrow (28th August).
In the Wheelchair Basketball, Japan’s women lost out to Canada 61-35 but sit top of their pool, albeit having played an extra game. With the top four teams from each pool progressing to the quarterfinals, their place looks secure however. China’s women beat Spain 46-29 and also sit top of their group. In the men’s competition, Japan beat Korea 59-52 and Iran lost out to USA 41-65.
Sitting Volleyball got underway at the Makuhari Messe. Japan’s men’s and women’s team both lost to the Russian Paralympic Committee and Italy respectively. There is much more to come in this sport however with China’s women and the six-time Paralympic Champions, I.R. Iran’s men’s team still to start their competition.
In Goalball, both China’s Men’s and Women’s teams won their matches, whilst Japan’s Men won their match against the USA 11-1, the Japanese women drew theirs with Brazil 4-4.
Tomorrow will see the first medals in Archery, Table Tennis and Triathlon being contested as well as more medals in Athletics, Equestrian, Judo, Powerlifting, Swimming and Wheelchair Fencing.
