PARIS: The Paralympic track and field events began at the Stade de France on Friday while the wheelchair tennis players commenced battle at Roland Garros on day two of competition in Paris.
Paralympic powerhouse China leaped to the top of the medals table after the first day of competition on Thursday and quickly added a fifth gold on Friday when the athletics got under way.
Zhou Xia sprinted to the women's T35 100m title, for people with impaired coordination, in a time of 13.58sec. The Chinese will look to add more golds in the pool and in track cycling later in the day.
At Roland Garros, the home of the French Open, despite grey morning skies and rain, a healthy-sized crowd, including a sizeable Israeli contingent, filed into the Suzanne Lenglen court to support singles player Adam Berdichevsky against Italy's Luca Arca. After clinching a 6-2, 7-5 victory, Berdichevsky took an Israeli flag from his wife and three children and jogged around the court waving it.
Meanwhile, India's world number one Paralympic badminton player Suhas Yathiraj reached the semifinals of the singles SL4 category by beating South Korea's Shin Kyung-hwan in two sets.
Yathiraj has an ankle impairment that impacts his mobility. Later on Friday, giant Iranian sitting volleyball legend Morteza Mehrzad, who stands 8ft 1in (2.46m) tall, starts his bid for another gold medal as his nation faces Ukraine in the preliminary round. Iran have won three of the last four titles.
FRENCH EUPHORIA
Swimmer Ugo Didier won the host nation's first gold on Thursday in euphoric scenes at La Defense Arena. Didier, who was born with clubbed feet and has reduced use of his legs, took the 400m freestyle title in the S9 category after being roared home by French supporters in an atmosphere reminiscent to that when home hero Leon Marchand won four golds at the Olympics.
Brazilian swimmer Gabrielzinho won the third Paralympic title of his career -- and is attempting to win two more titles in Paris. The 22-year-old, who has no arms or hands and his legs are atrophied, claimed the men's 100m backstroke S2 title.
Francesco Bocciardo and Carlotta Gilli launched much-fancied Italy's search for multiple swimming golds as they both successfully defended their titles.
China dominated the last Games in Tokyo with 96 golds and cyclists Zhangyu Li and Xiaomei Wang opened their account in Paris.
There was bitter disappointment though for Britain's Kadeena Cox after her eight-year reign as C4-5 time trial champion ended when she crashed in the velodrome just metres after pushing off.
Of the 35 venues for the highly successful Paris Olympics, 18 will be used for the Paralympics including the ornate Grand Palais, which will again host fencing.
Riding the wave of their Olympic team's success, host nation France are aiming for a far stronger showing than the 11 golds they won in 2021, which placed them 14th in the medals table. The French won a single gold on the opening day.
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