China stays atop medal table with six more golds at Tokyo Paralympics

TOKYO - China's Paralympic team continued its winning momentum on Wednesday at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, snatching six more gold medals to top the medal standings with a total of 147 medals including 68 gold.

Two world records were set by Chinese athletes in track and field as Zhu Dening won the men's long jump of T38 by 7.31 meters on his debut in the Games, and Shi Yiting won the gold in women's 100m of T36 class in 13.61 seconds, breaking her own world record of 13.68 seconds.

"It was not difficult at all (to prepare amid the COVID-19 pandemic) because China has controlled COVID-19 very well - maybe the best in the world - so under the protection of my country I was not worried at all," Zhu said.

"The gold is what I came here for. My family are very proud and were in tears when we spoke on the phone," Shi said.

Also in the track-and-field competition, Gao Fang topped the women's 100m T53 final in 16.29 seconds and Zhou Zhaoqian won gold in women's 100m T54 in 15.90 seconds.

In the men's 50m freestyle swimming S5 class, China swept all the medals as Zheng Tao, Yuan Weiyi and Wang Lichao led all the way to the victory with Zheng taking the gold in 30.31 seconds to break the Paralympic record.

This was the China's 66th gold medal at Tokyo 2020, and the 500th gold won by the Chinese delegations at the Summer Paralympics since 1984.

China's Chen Minyi won her second gold medal at Tokyo 2020 with a record-breaking 142-131 victory in the women's individual - W1 event in archery.

"This is my first time at a Paralympic Games. It's not easy but everything paid off now," she said.