China enjoyed a heady penultimate day at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games as they assured themselves of four gold medals and set themselves up for a few more on Monday .

While Mai Jianpeng/Qu Zimo defended their men’s doubles WH1-WH2 title, their compatriots in women’s doubles, Liu Yu Tong/Yin Meng Lu, reversed their result from the last Paralympics, beating Sarina Satomi/Yuma Yamazaki for the WH1-WH2 title.

Two more gold are assured as the women’s singles WH2 and SH6 finals will be all-Chinese affairs. Besides the four gold, China have a shot at five more, marking a step up from their last Paralympics campaign.

Liu Yu Tong and Yin Meng Lu had fallen in the Tokyo 2020 final to Sarina Satomi/Yuma Yamazaki. This time the Chinese dominated, banking on their greater physical prowess to take the match 21-17 21-19.

“Our training was so hard, I’d sometimes have tears at the end of my sessions, but now I think it’s all worth it,” said Yin Meng Lu.

“We’d lost to the Japanese at Tokyo 2020, but we weren’t mature back then,” said Liu. “We’ve been preparing for this moment for three years. We were constantly motivated to get the gold after failing in Tokyo.”

Their compatriots Mai and Qu were favourites in the men’s doubles, and they comfortably defended their title, with Korea’s Jeong Jaegun/Yu Sooyoung unable to trouble them in a straight games defeat, 21-10 21-12.

“This is our second time in the final, so we were quite confident,” said Qu Zimo. “We haven’t played them many times, so in the first game we had to stay conservative. But as the match went on we were able to dominate.”

Both Liu Yu Tong and Qu Zimo are favourites for their second gold in singles. Liu faces Li Hongyan in the WH2 final, while Qu takes on Choi Jungman in the WH1 gold medal bout.

China’s fourth gold will be in SH6 women’s singles, with Lin Shuangbao and Li Fengmei booking their spots in the title round.

The penultimate day of the Para badminton competition had a carnival feel, with the French audience turning up in strength to cheer on Charles Noakes, who fed off their energy to make the men’s singles SH6 final.

Noakes edged Vitor Tavares in an enthralling semifinal and will take on Krysten Coombs for the gold.

“No words. Just in a dream,” said Noakes. “It was really difficult to battle today because Vitor was very strong. But today I wanted to make myself proud, wanted to make my parents proud. I have them (pictures) on my watch, and that’s what helped me today to fight and just gave everything until the last second.”

Other Highlights

» The women’s singles SL4 and men’s singles SL4 will be repeat finals between Cheng He Fang and Leani Ratri Oktila, and Lucas Mazur and Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj respectively.

» Oktila will also feature in the mixed doubles final with Hikmat Ramdani when they take on compatriots Fredy Setiawan/Khalimatus Sadiyah.

» In women’s singles SU5 defending champion Yang Qiu Xia will be challenged by India’s Thulasimathi Murugesan.

» Japan have a shot at two gold medals, with defending champions Sarina Satomi (women’s singles WH1) and Daiki Kajiwara (men’s singles WH1) in action on Monday.

→Results