BEIJING, China —
Chinese athletes asserted home turf dominance on day two of the Winter Paralympics in
Beijing, netting four gold medals in alpine and cross country skiing events.
اضافة اعلان
The host nation now top the medal
tally with a haul of 16, taking the mantle from Ukraine, whose athletes netted
seven medals including three gold in Saturday's biathlon events.
Local crowds roared with excitement
as Zhang Mengqiu, 19, won
China's first ever gold medal in para-alpine
skiing in the Super G standing event Sunday – day earlier she was on the podium
with a silver in the women's downhill event.
Liang Jingyi, also 19, zipped down
the Yanqing Mountain to claim the men's standing Super G event.
While over at Zhangjiakou Zheng Peng
29, and Yang Hongqiong, 32, cleaned up in the men's and women's long distance
cross country sitting categories.
"I actually felt worn out in
the second half of the race, but then I heard them cheering for me. With that
in the background, the more I skied, the more powerful I felt," Yang said.
"We've proved that Team China
has unlimited potential for winter sports."
At the para-snowboarding qualifiers,
Chinese athletes claimed the top four times in the men's SB-UL category for
competitors with upper limb impairments.
Crowd favorite Wang Pengyao, 21,
goes into Monday's final ranked third.
"Today, I challenged myself and
made breakthroughs," he said.
Winter sports are still in their
infancy in China but are growing in popularity after the country built 650
skating rinks and 800 ski resorts in recent years.
China made their Winter Paralympic
debut at the
Salt Lake City 2002 Games but only won their first medal in 2018
in PyeongChang – claiming gold in wheelchair curling.
Being on home ground is however not
helping China's wheelchair curling team defend their title.
On Sunday they lost their second
successive match – going down 5-1 to Sweden after a 7-3 defeat to Canada the
previous day.
Coach Yue Qingshuang said
they were feeling the burden of high expectations on home ice.
"It's probably got to do with
the fact that we're on home ground," she said.
"There's more pressure and
everyone wants to do well too much."
The team are hoping for better
fortunes in their Sunday evening match against Estonia.
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