Paige Greco, an Australian cyclist, earned her first-ever gold medal of the Tokyo Paralympics on winning the 3000-meter pursuit on the Velodrome track. Wang Xiomei of China won the Silver, while Denise Schindler of Germany got the Bronze.
It is one of the 24 gold medals that are up for grabs as the Paralympic started amidst the pandemic that has encountered new cases in Tokyo since the Olympics started over a month ago. Medals in wheelchair fencing and swimming were also contested on the first day.
Paige Greco was born with a condition called cerebral palsy, which majorly affects the right side of her anatomy. Despite her condition, she won the Paralympics gold medal for the first time, winning the race in 3 minutes and 50.815 seconds.
“It feels amazing,” Greco stated. “I still can’t believe it. I keep looking down and seeing (the gold medal). It’s not really sunk in yet.”
After competing for seven years in track and field, Greco finally took up cycling three years back.
William Martin, the Australian teammate, was also entitled to the gold medal in the first final of swimming of the Paralympics, covering the 400-meter freestyle in 4:10:25 secs in the S9 class. Ugo Didier got silver, and Alex Tuckfield of Australia took the Bronze.
As for the Wheelchair final, Li Hao of China took the gold by defeating Artem Manko of Ukraine 15-12 in the last round in the men’s saber.
On Wednesday, the organizers of the Paralympics confirmed that two more athletes in the Paralympic village have been tested positive for Covid-19. That makes a total of three athletes who tested positive over the course of the last two days.
Over the past three days, a total of 9 have tested positive for Covid. Out of them, six are “Games-related personnel”
Masa Takaya, Spokesman of the organizing committee, stated that the players are “from different sports and different countries.” Although he didn’t disclose much, it is confirmed that all of them are placed in isolation.
When he was asked if there was a Covid-19 cluster in the Paralympic village, he said, “Whether or not there is a cluster should be based on the advice from specialists.”
After a surge in delta variant, straining the country’s healthcare system, Japan is all set to expand its Covid emergency for another week in a row now.
