Paralympics Day 4: Hanquinquant gives France third gold
Alexis Hanquinquant gave France its third gold medal of the Tokyo Paralympic Games by winning the PTS4 triathlon on Saturday. He won the event ahead of Japan’s Hideki Uda and Spain’s Alejandro Sanchez. In other disciplines such as table tennis, French athletes scooped up no less than five medals.
Issued on:
35-year-old Alexis Hanquinquant, who is a three time world champion, finished the triathlon that comprised a 750-metre swim, 20-kilometre cycle and 5-kilometre run, in under one hour (59 minutes 58 seconds), more than three minutes ahead of his competitors.
"The plan went perfectly," he said. "I had worked out several strategies but from the start of the swim, I told myself that the best one was to attack,” he said.
A bronze medal in the women's PTVI1 discipline went to Annouck Curzillat with her guide Céline Bousrez.
Raphaël Beaugillet and François Pervis won bronze in the track cycling race, behind a first and second place won by British cyclists.
It was great news for the French table tennis team, with 17 year-old Léa Ferney bringing home a silver medal, a first in this category.
While earlier in the day, her team members Maxime Thomas, Thu Kamkasomphou, Anne Barnéoud and Lucas Créange scooped up a bronze medal each.
Le Fur wins silver in her final Games
France’s Marie-Amelie Le Fur however missed out on winning a gold in the long jump. She recorded a jump of 6.11m, which was five centimetres behind the winner Fleur Jong of the Netherlands, to claim a silver and take her overall Games medals tally to nine. This was Le Flur's fourth and final Paralympic Games.
France has so far won 19 medals in this edition of the Games.
McFadden claims 18th medal
American athlete Tatyana McFadden won her 18th Paralympic medal on Saturday after taking bronze in the women’s T54 5000 metre event. With the third place finish, McFadden has now extended her streak of finishing on the podium in every Paralympic race she has entered since 2008. McFadden’s US teammate Susannah Scaroni won the gold medal.
Spanish doctor wins athletics gold
Spain’s Susana Rodriguez, who helped fight the coronavirus in her job as a doctor, was competing in the PTVI race for athletes with visual impairments.
Rodriguez and her guide Sara Loehr won the event ahead of Italy’s Anna Barbaro/Charlotte Bonin (guide) and France’s Annouck Curzillat/Celine Bousrez (guide).
In the early days of the pandemic, when she was on the phone lines to assess people with symptoms, her boss would hold a meeting each morning.
"He gave the new data, and things were going really wrong," the 33-year-old who has albinism and is partially sighted, told the news agency AFP before her competition at the virus-postponed Tokyo Paralympics.
She then put her specialisation in physical medicine and rehabilitation to use by helping patients recover from the most severe infections -- while fitting in hours on her treadmill and exercise bike between shifts.
A total of 54 gold medals are up for grabs across nine different sports.
(with AFP)
Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning
Subscribe