BEIJING: China pulled away from its Paralympic rivals yesterday as the host nation’s medal tally soared over 100, while South African swimming sensation Natalie du Toit grabbed her fourth gold.
Away from the sporting arena, International Paralympic chiefs were forced to defend the controversial banning of an Irish athlete and speak out against the doping problems in powerlifting.
China’s total of 109 medals means it has a bigger haul in six days of competition than it won during the whole of last month’s Olympics, when it collected exactly 100.
Its 37 golds include 17 in athletics and eight in table tennis, elevating China well clear of second-placed Britain, on 33 golds and an overall total of 69.
“The Chinese athletes are doing very well and there is high morale among all the athletes from China and now they are number one in the medal tally,” said Wang Wei, the vice-president of organizing committee BOCOG.
But he added that promoting the Paralympic movement and the cause of people with disabilities in China was more important than medals.
In the pool, du Toit added the women’s 400 meters freestyle title to the golds she has already won in the 100m butterfly, 100m freestyle and 200m individual medley events.
Du Toit destroyed the field, finishing almost 16 seconds ahead of Canada’s Stephanie Dixon in a time of 4 mins 23.81secs.
The 24-year-old, who knocked 0.15secs off her own world record, said: “It was a good race. I gave everything.” Du Toit said the 50m freestyle on Sunday would likely be her toughest task.
“It’s going to be a head-down-and-go race. Anything can happen but I’m looking forward to it, it’s a great challenge.” Du Toit, who finished 16th in the 10 kilometer marathon swim in the Olympics last month, is aiming for two more wins to match her gold tally at the 2004 Athens Paralympics.
She is one of only two Paralympians who also competed at the Beijing Olympics, along with Polish teenager Natalia Partyka who won table tennis gold in her class on Wednesday.
At the “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium earlier yesterday, the women’s 5000m wheelchair race was repeated after the first run Monday saw a huge pile-up less than 100 meters from the finishing line. Medals were handed out for the first race but subsequently withdrawn. In the re-run, the same three athletes finished in the medal positions but in a different order.
Meanwhile, International Paralympic Committee medical and scientific director Peter Van de Vliet insisted that classification rules were transparent and aimed at fair competition.
The comments followed a ruling that Irish footballer Derek Malone’s cerebral palsy condition was not severe enough, apparently because his condition had improved due to his fitness work ahead of the Games.
“As far as I know all the assessments that have been done so far during these Games have been done in compliance with the actual rules,” Van de Vliet said.
He also vowed to continue the drive to rid powerlifting of drug cheats following the expulsions of three weightlifters.
The controversies have taken some of the gloss off what has otherwise been a celebration of disabled sports, led by the performances of du Toit, fellow South African Oscar “Blade Runner” Pistorius and the dominant Chinese.
A total of 641 doping tests had been carried out at the Games, both in and out of competition, by the end of Thursday.
At the Athens Games, a total of 680 doping tests were conducted, resulting in 10 violations.
More than 4,000 competitors from nearly 150 countries and regions are battling for 472 gold medals in 20 sports at the Paralympics.
