Snowboarder Wu wins banked slalom SB-LL1 for China's 13th gold at Beijing Paralympics

CHONGLI, Zhangjiakou, March 11 (Xinhua) -- China's snowboarder Wu Zhongwei finished first in both runs to snatch the men's banked slalom SB-LL1 title to give the host the 13th gold medal at the Beijing Paralympics on Friday.

The result of one minute and 11.92 seconds in the first run was good enough for the 26-year-old Wu to secure the gold, but he bettered his performance in the second run in 1:10.85, 1.21 seconds ahead of PyeongChang 2018's silver medalist Chris Vos from the Netherlands, who placed second in both runs.

The third place went to Tyler Turner. The 33-year-old Canadian had won the cross SB-LL1, in which Wu got third four days ago and he was nearly 2 seconds behind Wu on Friday.

Also on Friday, China's Geng Yanhong and Li Tiantian reached the podium in women's banked slalom SB-LL2, finishing second and third respectively. The gold medal went to American Brenna Huckaby.

In the men's counterpart event, Chinese pair Ji Lijia and Zhu Yonggang settled with silver and bronze after Maxime Montaggioni of France. Montaggioni overtook 19-year-old Ji with a slight 0.45-second advantage through a strong second run.