China continued to dominate track and field on Monday, while Paua New Guinea and Poland celebrated their first medals at the Beijing Paralympics.
Of its six gold medals won on Monday, the Chinese delegation's most spectacular victory came from the women's discus - F42/46 event, in which Chinese athletes swept the whole set of medals.
Wang Jun won the gold in her last throw of 36.99m, beating the world record of 32.94m. Her compatriot Yang Yue's throw of 42.38m was further in distance and broke her own F44 world record but only gave her silver based on the multi-classification event point system. Zheng Baozhu took the bronze.
"I was put into a different category (by the competition officials) before the competition. I didn't expect to win, but I was very excited to see three Chinese national flags rising at the same time," said Wang.
Wang's coach Hou Guoqing described his student, who began to train with him at the age of 15, as a "very perseverant and competitive" athlete.
Wang's father used to draw a line and asked her to throw to that line when she was a kid, according to the coach.
Papua New Guinea's Francis Kompaon may have only got a silver in the men's 100m - T46 classification, but he looked the happiest man at the finish line, for giving his country its first medal.
"I'm so excited that I got the silver. This is my personal best," said the 22-year-old university student who planned to work for the Paralympic committee after graduation.
Australian Heath Francis won the men's 100m - T46 gold and now has three Beijing Paralympic gold medals to his name.
Another sensational moment occurred when Poland's Paralympic debutant Marci Awizen raced to his first gold medal, and also the first athletics medal for Poland at the Beijing Paralympics.
On the top spot of the podium, the 23-year-old Polish cried so hard.
He said he had been working so hard for the moment, training seven days a week without a day off.
"This is my first Paralympics, this is my first medal and gold - so it's great. It is also the first athletics medal for Poland, so this means a lot to us. I have been dreaming about this for three years," he said.
Another event on Monday which sent the audience to deafening cheers was the men's 200m -T36 final, which saw So Wa Wai win the third gold, also the first in track and field for Hong Kong, China.
The 27-year-old defending champion who had already won a bronze in the men's 100m race in Beijing, dashed to his first gold in Beijing in 24.65 seconds, breaking the old world record created by him.
"This is the sixth gold medal for me in the Paralympics," said So, who attributed his win partly to "good luck" as well as practice.
He said he was ill before the competition and not quite in shape.
"During the first part of today's competition I did not run at my normal speed but later I pushed myself harder, caught up and won the gold," he said.
A total of 18 field and track events were contested on Monday, the eighth day of the Beijing Paralympics athletics.
Thus far, 129 out of the 160 athletics golds at the Beijing Paralympics had been given out, among which 34 went to the Chinese delegation.
Tunisia, Ukraine and Canada shared the second place on the athletics gold medal table, with nine gold medals each.
(Xinhua News Agency September 16, 2008)