PARIS: Brazilian swimmer Gabrielzinho, one of the faces of the Paris Paralympics, was in action again on Friday but failed to make the final after moving into a different category, while British cyclist Sarah Storey won her 19th gold.
The Brazilian, who has stumps for arms and atrophied legs, has won three gold medals at these Games but had warned that when he moved into the S3 class, he would struggle.
So it proved as he finished fifth in his 50m freestyle heat won by Serhii Palamarchuk of Ukraine, leaving him outside the eighth fastest swimmers from the two heats who qualified for the final.
In other sports, the evergreen Storey won the 19th gold medal of her Paralympic career as she beat French rider Heidi Gaugain in a sprint finish to the cycling road race.
It was 46-year-old Storey's 30th Paralympic medal, earned across two sports and in the nine Paralympic Games she has contested since Barcelona 1992. Later, there were finals in wheelchair tennis and fencing.
VIO SETTLES FOR BRONZE
In Thursday's action, another Paralympic superstar, Italian fencer Bebe Vio, failed to win gold for a second time at these Games as Italy had to settle for a wheelchair fencing team bronze medal.
Two-time individual champion Vio was defeated in her semifinal of the women's foil on Wednesday in one of the biggest shocks of these Games.
The Italian, who uses prosthetic arms having had all four limbs amputated as a child when she contracted meningitis, managed to salvage a bronze medal in that event.
Vio's hopes of taking advantage of a second opportunity to win gold in the team event were dashed as Italy lost 45-41 to China in a hard-fought semifinal contest.
The Italian went on to win a bronze medal by beating Hong Kong and Vio congratulated her team-mates in her customary euphoric style, but despite increasing her overall Paralympic medal total to six these Games have undoubtedly been a disappointment for the 27-year-old.
The USA men's wheelchair basketball team easily beat Canada 80-43 on Thursday to set up a final against Great Britain on Saturday.
The reigning champions never looked in trouble against 2012 winners Canada as Brian Bell hit 31 points to lead all scorers.
The British showed they have the firepower to challenge the Americans as they reached the final for the first time since 1996 by defeating Germany 71-43 thanks to an outstanding 35-point performance from sharp-shooting Gregg Warburton.
French President Emmanuel Macron was in the crowd at the Stade de France on Thursday to watch the athletics action as Australian double amputee Vanessa Low bettered her own world record with a jump of 5.45 metres in the women's T61 long jump.
After early action on Friday, China led the medals table on 74 gold with Great Britain advancing to 38 and the USA third with 27. The Netherlands are fourth with 21 gold and host nation France have 17 in fifth place.
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