Day 8: Asian Nations at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games

Records tumble and Saudi Arabia get off the mark.

China’s Archer Minyi CHEN won her second Gold medal of the Games when she won the Women’s Individual W1 event and set a new Paralympic Record of 142.

Asia’s athletes at the Olympic Stadium were also in record breaking form, with three World Record being set from seven Gold medals. I.R. Iran’s Saeid ALFROOZ threw 40.05m in the Men’s Javelin Throw F34 to set a new World Record and take the Gold medal and China’s Dening ZHU jumped 7.31m to win the Men’s Long Jump T38 with teammate Huanghao ZHONG winning the Silver medal. Chinese Sprinter Yiting SHI picked up her second Gold medal of the Games in the Women’s 100m T36 and broke her own World Record in the process. It was a second Gold medal of the Games and a Paralympic Record for Pongsakorn PAEYO in the Men’s 100m T53 final in which Saudi Arabia also picked up their first medal of the Games when Abdulrahman ALQURASHI won the Bronze. It was the first of two Gold medals on the track for Thailand as Paeyo’s teammate 18-year-old Athiwat PAENG-NUEA caused a surprise by beating four time Paralympic Champion, Finland’s Leo TAHTI in the Men’s 100m T54 final, setting a new Asian Record.

The first medals of Boccia were decided and Asian nations were in contention for three of the Gold medals on offer and two of the Bronze medals. Japan’s Hidetaka SIGIMURA fittingly gave the performance of his lifetime on home soil to win the Gold medal in the BC2 match against Thailand’s VONGSA beating him 5-0. This is the first individual Boccia Paralympic medal that Japan have ever won and will give the team confidence as they head into the team events. Paralympic newcomer Malaysia’s Chew WEI LUN couldn’t manage to dethrone Great Britain’s reigning Paralympic champion David SMITH and despite winning the first end 2-0, eventually lost out 2-4 to win the Silver medal in the BC1 class. Overall though a performance to be very proud of for the young Malaysian. Unfortunately, both of Thailand’s two Bronze medal contenders weren’t successful in their matches but Hong Kong’s Yuk Wing LEUNG beat China’s Yuansen ZHENG 5-4 to claim the Bronze.

In Goalball, Japan’s women won their Quarter final 4-1 against Israel. They will now meet Turkey in the Semi-final tomorrow (Thursday 2nd September). It wasn’t to be for China’s women however who lost their Quarter-final against Brazil 0-1.

At the Tokyo In Shooting, Korea’s Jinho PARK won Silver in the R3-Mixed Air Rifle Prone SH1 to add to his Bronze medal won earlier in the week. With two events still to go, PARK will be hoping to complete his set of medals.

At the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, China had another clean sweep, winning all three medals in the Men’s 50m Freestyle S5 race. Amazingly all three athletes had less than a second time difference when they touched the wall. China added another Silver and a Bronze to take their total tally in the pool to an incredible 44 medals or 31% of all the medals that they have won (so far!) at these Games.

In Table Tennis, it was the Semi-finals of the Men’s and Women’s Team events. In the Men’s events Asian nations will be in contention in all the classes. Korea will contend for two Gold medals in Class 1-2 and Class 4-5 where they will face China. China’s Men will also compete for four other Gold medals (Class 3, Class 6-7, Class 8 and Class 9-10). In the Women’s events, China will face Korea in the Class 1-3 final and will also compete for the Gold medal in the Class 4-5 against Sweden and the Class 6-8 event against the Netherlands. Gold medal matches in the team events take place on Thursday and Friday (2nd and 3rd September).

It was Badminton’s first day of competition ever at a Paralympic Games with Asian athletes expected to perform strongly. There are two more days of Group play before the first medals will be contended on Saturday.

In Sitting Volleyball, the final pool matches in the Women’s competition were played. China beat Rwanda 3-0 to ensure that they finished top of their group. They will now face Canada in the Semi-final which will be played on Friday 3rd September. Japan’s women lost 0-3 to Canada which means that they finished bottom of their group and won’t progress.

It was the Quarter-finals of the men’s Wheelchair Basketball with home nation Japan hoping to defeat Australia to reach the Semi-finals. After a tight game, the host nation won 61-55 and will now face Great Britain in the Semi-final on Friday.

The Wheelchair Tennis schedule was interrupted by heavy rain but before the weather took its toll, Japan’s Shingo KUNEIDA beat France’s Stephane HOUDET 7-6 6-3 to secure a place in the Men’s Singles Semi-final where he will meet reigning Paralympic Champion Gordon Reid. The Quad Doubles Bronze medal match between MOROISHI and SUGENO of Japan and Great Britain’s Cotterell and Lapthorne was suspended with the Japanese players leading 2-1 in the first set.

At the end of day eight, the medal table for Asian nations looks like this

 Day 8GoldSilverBronzeTotal
1China684336147
13I.R. Iran86115
15Japan671124
16Uzbekistan54615
25Thailand34512
33Jordan3014
34India25310
42Korea14914
44Kazakhstan1315
48Malaysia1203
49Sri Lanka1012
53Mongolia1001
51Singapore1001
61Indonesia0123
64Iraq0112
68Kuwait0101
68Vietnam0101
72Hong Kong0022
74Saudi Arabia0011
74Oman0011
74Chinese Taipei0011
74UAE0011

Tomorrow the Taekwondo event gets underway marking its Paralympic debut. It’s expected to be a strong event for Asian nations but all eyes will be on Afghanistan’s Zakia Khudadadi who will compete in the Women’s K44 -49kg event.

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