USA take first track and field golds

China dominate the medal chart at Paralympics

PARIS:

The United States won their first two track and field titles of the Paris Paralympics on Saturday but China piled on the medals to stretch their lead in the table.

On the same track at the Stade de France where his compatriot Noah Lyles won the Olympic gold nearly four weeks ago, Jaydin Blackwell charged to the men's T38 100m final in a world record time of 10.64sec.

Blackwell, who has cerebral palsy, donned a pair of sunglasses to celebrate his victory.

"I had to bring something over here to put a little pizzazz into things," the 20-year-old said.

"It was the perfect race, but I was just focused on what I had to do and get to the line as fast as possible."

There was more USA success as wheelchair racer Daniel Romanchuk upstaged reigning champion Marcel Hug of Switzerland in an exciting men's 5000m T54 final. Romanchuk, a 26-year-old who was born with spina bifida, burst past five-time gold medallist Hug in the home straight, leaving the Swiss in silver medal position while Faisal Alrajehi took a rare Paralympic medal for Kuwait in third.

British veteran David Weir, a multiple Paralympic medallist, faded and finished eighth.

Romanchuk has impressive range having taken gold at 400m at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and has also won the Chicago, New York and Boston marathon wheelchair races.

China's 14th gold medal overall of these Games came thanks to javelin thrower Yuping Zhao, who set a world record of 47.06 metres in the F12 category for athletes with a moderate visual impairment. China had moved up to 20 golds midway through Saturday evening's action, showing that the country that has topped the medals table at every Paralympics since Athens in 2004 is well on the way to repeating that feat.

In the pool, Brazilian swimmer Gabriel dos Santos Araujo, known as Gabrielzinho, won his second title of the Paris Games by taking the 50m backstroke gold in the S2 category. Gabrielzinho has stumps where his arms should be and his legs are atrophied, although he can walk.