Paris 2024: Top medal highlights from Day 3

Three-peat for Javanmardi

Republic of Iran’s Sareh Javanmardi won her third women’s 10m air pistol SH1 Paralympic title on Saturday, adding a fourth gold to her collection of five Paralympic shooting Para sport medals.

“I am so tremendously happy to have won my fifth Paralympic medal. There is nothing that can match this, really,” said Javanmardi.

"I want to retire now. I think I will train my child to follow my lead.”

In the men’s 10m air rifle standing SH1 final, Denmark’s Martin Black Joergensen seemed poised for an upset, but lost his lead in the last few shots, finishing third.

Jinho Park of the Republic of Korea came first, adding a gold to his collection of silver and bronze from Tokyo 2020.

“It was the only medal I did not have so now I have achieved everything. I feel fulfilled.”

China wins inaugural mixed doubles gold

The Para table tennis competition in Paris featured a new event on Saturday, with China’s Mao Jingdian and Zhao Shuai becoming the first-ever mixed doubles Paralympic gold medallists, winning the XD17 competition in three straight sets.

“When we paired together, we didn’t have a lot of time to train together, so I’m very grateful to my partner,” said Mao.

“We have played together for less than a year. I get anxious or angry sometimes when I play, and he calmed me down.”

Mao and Zhao faced compatriots Peng Weinan and Xiong Guiyan in the final in what was another strong day for China at the South Paris Arena. Cao Ningning and Feng Panfeng won men’s doubles MD8 gold, with Gu Xiaodan and Pan Jiamin claiming the women’s doubles WD10 gold.

Drama at the Velodrome

It was a dramatic finish to the men’s C4 4000m individual pursuit, with Great Britain’s Archie Atkinson considered the favourite going in to the final.

Paralympic debutant Atkinson is the reigning World Champion, and broke the world record in the qualifying round.

However, a fall in the gold final forced Atkinson to settle for silver, with Slovakia’s Jozef Metelka winning his second-ever Paralympic gold medal and showing great sportsmanship.

“The first thing I wanted to do was to check on Archie. I was concerned about him and how he was doing. At first I didn’t know if it was serious or not. Then I didn’t want to celebrate in front of him, of course,” said Metelka.

“But once I knew he was OK, I did celebrate, and I couldn’t believe I had just won the gold medal.”

China’s Li Zhangyu and Liang Weicong mimicked their results from Thursday’s men’s C1 3000m individual pursuit, with Li taking gold and Liang silver once again, this time in the C1-3 1000m time trial.

Grinham first pregnant Paralympian on the podium

Great Britain’s Jodie Grinham beat out teammate Phoebe Paterson Pine in the Para archery women’s individual compound open bronze final, becoming the first pregnant athlete to win a Paralympic medal.

“I’m so proud of her because she defied all odds just to be here, especially with Bubba on the way,” said Paterson Pine. "She is due in October, I think it is. I’m so proud and impressed of how well she’s done.”

The battle for gold in the women’s individual W1 was the same as it was in Tokyo, with China’s Chen Minyi facing Czechia’s Sarka Pultar Musilova. Chen once again took the gold.

“I was hoping that would not have this opponent in the final, but she was great. She was shooting really well. So I congratulate her, and let’s see what’s going to be next,” said Musilova.

Musilova was one of two Czech athletes on the podium, with Tereza Brandtlova winning the bronze.

“It’s an amazing feeling. We were training together. We were preparing together for these Games. Especially for our country, which is a small one, it’s a really big thing that we are two athletes from one small country together on the podium.”

Final Para taekwondo medals awarded

The Paris 2024 Para taekwondo competition came to a close at the Grand Palais on Saturday, with the final three gold medallists decided.

Amy Truesdale of Team GB won her first-ever Paralympic gold medal in the women’s K44 +65kg, facing young star Guljonoy Naimova of Uzbekistan in the gold medal contest.

Great Britain’s second gold of the day in Para taekwondo came from Matt Bush, who missed out on Tokyo 2020 due to injury.

“Just getting here is a miracle to be honest,” said Bush. “I ruptured my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) two weeks before Tokyo, was out for two years, had two surgeries.

“As much as we all want medals, it’s like I’ve learned so much by doing sport. It’s improved me as a person, and it’s constantly improved me. The good things improve you, but the bad things do as well.”

Uzbekistan’s Asadbek Toshtemirov won the men’s K44 -80kg gold, taking the gold medal contest 38-17 over Mexico’s Luis Mario Najera.

Basiloff wins monumental gold for Argentina

It was a mix of familiar faces and new medallists making it onto the podium at the Paris La Defense Arena on Saturday.

Yip Pin Xiu continued to be a dominate force in the pool, winning a third Paralympic 50m backstroke S2 gold.

“I don’t take it for granted. We train really hard, day in, day out. I am sure everybody does the same but it’s finding that edge and getting a great team to work with us, so we can swim as fast as we can.”

Brazil’s Gabriel Geraldo dos Santos Araujo and Maria Carolina Gomes Santiago added to their medal collections as well, dos Santos Araujo in the men’s 50m backstroke S2 and Gomes Santiago in the women’s 100m backstroke S12.

After two fourth place finishes in Tokyo, Argentina’s Inaki Basiloff finally got on the podium, winning the men’s 200m individual medley SM7 gold, the first Paralympic gold medal for Argentina in any sport since Rio 2016.

It was a day of many firsts for swimmers from Great Britain, including a first Paralympic gold for Stephen Clegg, who topped the podium by setting a world record of 59.02 in the men’s 100m backstroke S12.

“The main priority here is to make sure we set ourselves up in heats to get gold medal performances in the finals and not worry too much about time,” said Clegg.

“It’s a pretty special thing when you can win gold medals with a world’s fastest time.”

Upsets on the track

The 5000m T54 finals saw both the women’s and men’s reigning Paralympic champions dethroned. Catherine Debrunner of Switzerland upset USA’s Susannah Scaroni in the women’s final, setting a new Paralympic record to finish ahead of the defending champion and world record holder.

“It’s amazing. It was a tough push to stay ahead of Susannah. It was a tough race but the crowd helped me,” said Debrunner.

“Once I knew we were alone I was really happy because I knew I was second or first. But then she went really fast for the last 600m so I stayed behind her. Somehow I had some energy left at the end.”

American Daniel Romanchuk denied Switzerland’s Marcel Hug the opportunity to once again win four golds at one Games, finishing ahead of the Para athletics legend in the men’s 5000m T54.

Fleur Jong defended her women’s long jump T64 title, in the process breaking the Paralympic record not one, not twice, but three times.

Gold medallists at State de France get to ring a bell that will become part of the Notre Dame Cathedral following the Games.

“It’s amazing. I saw the bell (rung by gold medallists) at the Olympic Games, and I was secretly dreaming about having the chance to ring that bell myself. And today was the day I got to do it."