体坛英语新闻：Paralympics roundup: China bags five table tennis gold medals

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- China bagged five table tennis titles to extend their lead at the top of the Rio Paralympic medal standings on Monday.

China secured 11 gold medals in total on the fifth day of competition, advancing their tally to 50 gold, 40 silver and 28 bronze medals. Britain were second and the Ukraine third with 28 and 22 gold medals respectively.

In one of the most impressive performances of the day, China's Li Guizhi set a new world record to win gold in the women's 50m freestyle S11.

The 23-year-old, who is visually impaired, clocked 30.73 seconds to beat the previous record held by Liesette Bruinsma of the Netherlands.

Sweden's Maja Reichard took silver in 30.76 and the Ukraine's Maryna Piddubna shared bronze with Bruinsma after both hit the wall in 31.23.

"I feel very animated and happy because I have been training for a long time for this and it was very difficult for me," said Li, who won silver in the same event at the London Paralympics four years ago.

"My coach helped me a lot because two months ago I had an accident. My toe broke and I had an injury and for 20 days I could not walk and my coach helped me a lot. She never gave up on me."

Cao Ningning secured China's first table tennis gold medal of the day by winning the men's singles class 5 final.

The 28-year-old took the match 3-0 (13-11, 12-10, 11-8) in 28 minutes at Riocentro.

"This is my greatest achievement in the Paralympics. I was confident of winning before the tournament started, but also nervous," Cao told the Paralympic News Service.

"It feels weird to be the gold medallist but now I have to prepare for the men's team event."

It was Cao's second Paralympic gold medal after his success in the team classes 4-5 event at the London 2012 Games. He was also a silver medalist in the singles class 5 in London.

Mao Jingdian revealed that a note scrawled on her hand was crucial to the successful defense of her Paralympic table tennis singles CL 8 title.

The 21-year-old needed just 18 minutes to defeat France's Thu Kamkasomphou 3-0 (11-6, 11-8, 11-3) in the final at Riocentro.

"I wrote, 'Be determined and confident' on the palm of my hand before my first game and I looked at it again last night, but it wasn't there anymore so I wrote it again to remind myself and looked at it before the game," Mao said.

"I knew I had to have confidence in myself and I got so engaged in the match I really started to enjoy it."

Mao, whose impairment stems from a hip injury in 2005, said she was looking forward to celebrating with her family.

"I want to call my dad but I know because of the time difference that he will be sleeping. But I have sent him a text. I am looking forward to going home and eating homemade food made by my dad and I will then go back to school," she added.

Pan Shiyun smashed his own world record to win gold in the men's 50m butterfly S7.

Pan touched the wall in 28.41 seconds to beat the previous mark of 29.49, which he set last year.

Ukraine's Ievgenii Bogodaiko took silver in 29.35 and China's Wang Jingang bronze in 30.07.

Pan, who lost the use of his right arm in an electrical accident when he was 11, also set a new world record to win the men's 50m freestyle S7 on Friday.

The 27-year-old has now won four Paralympic gold medals. In addition to his two triumphs on Rio, he won the 100m freestyle S7 and 50m butterfly S7 at the London 2012 Games.

Xue Juan secured China's fifth table tennis gold medal of these Games with a straight sets victory over compatriot Li Qian in the final of the women's singles class 3.

Xue, 26, took the match 12-10, 11-7, 11-9 in 20 minutes at Riocentro.

In the bronze medal duel, Sweden's Anna-Carin Ahlquist beat South Korea's Jiyu Yoon 3-0 (12-10, 11-7, 11-7) in 21 minutes.

Zhang Bian won her third straight Paralympic singles table tennis class 5 title, defeating compatriot Gu Gai in the final.

The 30-year-old took the match 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-6) in 22 minutes at Riocentro.

Zhang, who has limb deficiency, also won the class 5 singles and classes 4-5 team titles at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Games.

In the battle for bronze, South Korea's Jung Young-A overcame Sweden's Ingela Lundabaeck 3-1 (11-9, 17-15, 10-12, 11-9).

China's Cheng Jiao powered home to easily win the women's 150m individual medley SM4 at the Rio Paralympics on Monday

The 22-year-old clocked 2 minutes 49.69 seconds to finish almost five seconds ahead of Ukraine's Olga Sviderska. China's Deng Yue was third in 2:57.26.

Fu Xinhan ended his long wait for a Paralympic gold medal by winning the shot put F35 final in Rio on Monday.

The 31-year-old threw a personal best 15.19m with his second attempt to beat Argentina's Hernan Emanuel Urra by 28cm. Latvia's Edgar Bergs took bronze with 14.55m.

Xinhan, who has impairment to his left side due to cerebral palsy, had previously won four silver medals and a bronze in a career that has spanned four editions of the Paralympics.

China secured their second archery gold medal of the Rio Paralympics when Ai Xinliang and Zhou Jiamin beat Britain's Jodie Grinham and John Stubbs 151-143 in the mixed team compound event.

In the bronze medal match, South Korea's Kim Mi-Soon and Lee Ouk-Soo defeated Turkey's Handan Biroglu and Bulent Korkmaz 138-128.

China's other archery gold medal here came on Sunday when Wu Chunyan and Zhao Lixue won the mixed team recurve final.

China's Ge Yang rallied from two sets to one down to win his fifth Paralympic table tennis title.

The 30-year-old beat Poland's Patryk Chojnowski in five gripping sets (5-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-8, 16-14) to clinch gold in the singles class 10 category.

It was Ge's second Paralympic table tennis singles title. He also won gold in teams events at the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Paralympics.

And Zhang Li clinched her second gold medal here by winning the women's 50m freestyle S5 final.

The 18-year-old finished in 36.87 seconds, 26 hundredths of a second faster than Brazil's Joana Maria Silva. The Czech Republic's Bela Trebinova claimed bronze in 37.37. Zhang also won the 200m freestyle S5 title in Rio.