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Chinese Paralympians Strike Golds at Sydney Games
Xu Hongyan won the women's discus throw F12 on Friday to help China win the first gold as the Sydney Paralympics Games entered the second day.
Following Xu's golden performance, Zhang Hongwei added one with his triumph in the men's long jump F46 and swimmer Tian Hengheng made it three in men's 200m individual medley SM8 as both set world records.
China also took one siver in judo where Cui Baoji lost to his American opponent Moore Scott.
Xu, who finished runner-up in discus throw in 1996 Atlanta Paralympics, showed her dominance in the event by pulling off a 42.19-meter performance.
Banta Lisa of the United States came in second with a throw of 38.66, 2.09 meters ahead of Australian Willis-Roberts Jodie.
Xu's first attempt chalked up a throw of 39 meters to overshadow others, although she shook her head in frustration.
"My coach had told me to start strong at the first attempt, so that I could feel much easier afterwards," Xu said.
Her coach Li Chao said that Xu will perform true to her form only with every throw recording a minimum of 40 meters.
"She is expected to make every throw at least at 40 meters. It is certain that she was not feeling content with her performance at the beginning," he said.
Zhang powered to a flying start with a 7.03 meters jump in the first attempt, beating his own world record of 6.89 meters set last year.
Tian clocked a world record time of two minutes 38.11 seconds in the swimming final, beating the previous world mark of 2:40.83 set by South African Jacque Terblanche.
On a day with a total of 140 golds on offer, China placed seventh in the medal table but France came out the biggest winner.
After being medalless on the first day, France stormed to the top of the medal table with five gold, five silver and five bronze medals.
Placing second is Britain which ended up with a sole bronze medal on Thursday.
Spain also ended Friday's competition with three golds, five silvers and three bronzes for the third spot on the table.
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