PARIS: Paralympic powerhouse China had three doubles pairs in gold medal action at the Paris Games on Sunday, adding two gol­ds and a silver to its already burgeoning medals tally.

Feng Panfeng and Zhou Ying claimed the first gold of the day’s action for China before Liao Keli and Yan Shuo also emerged victorious, but Liu Chaodong and Zhao Yiqing went down in straight games as they took silver.

Things did not go China’s way in the opening match of the three finals, with Pola­nd’s Patryk Chojno­wski and Piotr Grudzien beating Liu and Zhao 3-0 for MD18 men’s doubles gold.

There was a dispute with an official over a point in the first set and speaking after the match, Chinese silver medallist Liu said the incident “put us off our game and we didn’t get going again”.

“I think the disagreement with the official distracted us... It affected us mentally and we needed to focus more. We are disappointed,” Liu added. But China, long the dominant force in the sport of table tennis, bounced back agai­nst Thailand in the second and third finals to win gold.

First, Feng and Zhou beat Thai duo Yuttajak Gli­n­b­ancheun and Wijittra Jai­on three games to one in the XD7 mixed doubles final.

“We are very happy,” said Feng. “We prepared very hard for this match... We studied our rivals’ strengths and weaknesses, and it worked well.”

Liao and Yan then rounded off Sunday’s early action by coming back from one game down to also beat a Thai pairing 3-1 in the MD14 men’s doubles final.

The blind football competition kicked off at the foot of the Eiffel Tower with the players guided by a rattle in the ball.

Colombia beat Japan 1-0 in the opening match of the men’s event before Morocco and Argentina drew 0-0.

China added more golds in early action to move to 24 golds at the top of the medals table, but a rush of medals in the velodrome, including from James Ball in the men’s B 1000m time trial, kept Great Britain in touch in second place on 16 golds.

TRIATHLON POSTPONED

Meanwhile, organisers were forced to delay the triathlon events by 24 hours due to concerns about the water quality of the River Seine after heavy rain.

The 11 triathlon races were to take place early Sunday but after heavy rain on Saturday which can stir up pollution in the Seine, organisers and governing body World Triathlon deci­ded to postpone by a day.

“The latest analysis sho­ws a deterioration in the water quality of the Seine following heavy rainfall over the past two days,” the organisers said. “It was decided to schedule the 11 medal sessions of the Para triathlon on Sept 2.”

The triathlon was scheduled to take place over two days — Sept 1 and 2.

The issue also caused disruption to the Olympics triathlon and open-water swi­m­­ming events earlier this summer, with several practice sessions being cancelled due to high levels of pollution caused by rainfall.

Of 11 days of events and training scheduled in the river, only five got the green light.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2024