Chinese Highjumper Hou Dreams of Big Meal after Paralympics VictoryChinese highjumper Hou Bin planned to celebrate his gold with a big meal that has been a luxury for him during the preparation for the Sydney Paralympics.Hou, who won the gold in Atlanta four years ago with a 1.92m performance, pulled off a jump of 1.87 meters in men's high jump F42 to claim the title although he failed to clear more height later. The chisel-faced athlete said that he has put himself through the tormenting dieting program in a bid to reduce the body weight. "My body weight has been reduced from 70kg to less than 60kg. Now I want to enjoy a big dinner, but I wonder whether my stomach could afford," said Hou. Another gold medalist who could also wished to enjoy a big meal was China's world champion powerlifter Zhang Haidong, winner of the men's 75 kilograms category title on Thursday. Zhang won the title after lifting 227.5kg and 235kg in his second and third attempts, breaking his own world record of 225kg set last year in Bangkok. The strongman earned a standing ovation from the spectators when he further improved his own mark with a lift of 240kg, which will stand as the newest world record. It was also the day of swimmer Zhu Hongyan, who clocked a new world record time of one minute 9.09 seconds in winning the women's 100 meters butterfly S12 event. The victory made Zhu the most prolific Chinese athlete in Sydney, having captured the titles in women's 200m individual medley SM12 and wome's 100m freestyle S12 in earlier competitions. In the same pool, Chinese swimmer Yin Jianhua won the men's 100 meters freestyle S6 title here on Thursday. He clocked a title winning time of 1:08.10, which smashed the previous world record of 1:08.45 set in 1996 by New Zealander Duane Kale. China also garnered two golds in women's table tennis to become the biggest winners on Thursday with seven golds. With three days to go before the Games closing ceremony, China has garnered 24 golds, 19 silvers and 13 bronzes to place sixth in the medal standings with a medal tally of 56. Blessed with the unmatched enthusiasm of the home crowd, the Australians collected six golds on the day to remain the leader in terms of gold medal credit. Britain was ranked second with 31 golds, followed by Spain 30, the United States (24) and France (24). |
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