China pockets four golds on Day 2 of Beijing Winter Paralympics

YANQING, Beijing, March 6 (Xinhua) — China won four gold medals on the second matchday of the ongoing Beijing Paralympic Winter Games on Sunday, taking a dominant lead in the medal tally with 16 medals in total, including six gold, four silver and six bronze medals.

Chinese skiers Zhang Mengqiu and Liang Jingyi won two golds at National Alpine Skiing Center. Zhang clocked a winning time of one minute and 13.54 seconds at the women’s super-G standing race to win China’s first-ever gold medal at Winter Paralympics Alpine skiing competitions, while Liang triumphed in the men’s super-G standing with 1:09.11.

“I am delighted and excited to win the gold at home,” said Zhang.

“It exceeded my expectations, I have never thought of winning a gold medal,” said Liang. “I just presumed it would be nice if I performed at a normal level.”

Zhu Daqing and Zhang Wenjing added bronze in women’s super-G vision impaired and sitting competitions to an improving Chinese Para-Alpine skiing team.

In other Alpine skiing competitions on Sunday, Alexandra Rexova of Slovakia (women’s super-G vision impaired), Momoka Muraoka of Japan (women’s super-G sitting), Neil Simpson of Britain (men’s super-G vision impaired) and Jesper Pedersen of Norway (men’s super-G sitting) won their respective gold medals.

In the co-host city of Zhangjiakou, Chinese Para cross-country skiers Zheng Peng and Mao Zhongwu finished one-two in the men’s long-distance sitting. Their teammate Yang Hongqiong clinched the women’s long-distance sitting gold, 32.1 seconds ahead of American star Oksana Masters, and Li Panpan finished third.

“Frankly speaking, I did expect a medal but not a gold, I knew the opponents were very competitive,” said Yang. “I just concentrated on myself. When I finished the race, I felt like completing homework at school.”

In Para ice hockey preliminaries, China beat the Czech Republic 5-2 and Italy edged Slovakia 2-1 in Group B. The United States smashed South Korea 9-1 in Group A.

In wheelchair curling, China won over Estonia 9-3 after suffering a 5-1 defeat against Sweden in the morning. Canada led the round-robin sessions with three wins from as many games after overwhelming Latvia 10-3.