Blade of glory as fencer Li opens China's account

TOKYO－Li Hao claimed Team China's first gold medal of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics on Wednesday.

In the first wheelchair fencing final of the Games, Li won the men's individual saber category A title with a 15-12 triumph over Artem Manko of Ukraine.

Fellow wheelchair fencer Bian Jing doubled China's gold-medal tally, defeating Georgia's Nina Tibilashvili 15-7 in the women's individual saber category A final.

Earlier, track cyclist Paige Greco of Australia claimed the first gold medal of the sporting gala, winning the C1-3 3,000-meter pursuit. Wang Xiaomei of China took silver, with bronze going to Denise Schindler of Germany.

Greco's gold was the first of 24 up for grabs on Wednesday as the Paralympics got underway in the middle of a pandemic that has seen new cases in Tokyo soar since the Olympics opened just over a month ago.

Greco was born with cerebral palsy, which mostly affects the right side of her body.

"It feels amazing," Greco said. "I still can't believe it. I keep looking down and seeing (the gold medal).It's not really sunk in yet."

The Australian had smashed her own world record by nearly eight seconds to qualify fastest from the morning heats.

She then lowered that time by another second and a half to 3 min 50.815 sec in the final just over two hours later. Silver medalist Wang－who had also beaten Greco's old world record in the heats－had no answer to the Australian's power, finishing more than four seconds adrift.

Greco's Aussie teammate William Martin also bagged gold in the first swimming final of the Paralympics, winning the 400-meter freestyle S9 class. Ugo Didier of France took silver and Alex Tuckfield of Australia pocketed bronze.

In the wheelchair rugby pool stage, defending champion Australia suffered a shock setback in its bid to become the first team to top the podium at three consecutive Games, losing 54-53 to Denmark.

Away from the competition, organizers confirmed Wednesday that two more athletes have tested positive for COVID-19 in the Paralympic Village. That brings to three the total of positive tests by athletes in the village over the last two days.

Over the last three days, organizers have confirmed nine positive tests in the village. The additional six, who are not athletes, are described as "Games-related personnel".

Organizing committee spokesman Masa Takaya said the athletes were "from different sports and different countries". But he gave few details and said the athletes have been placed in isolation.

He was asked if there was a COVID-19 cluster in the village.

"Whether or not there is a cluster should be based on the advice from specialists," he said.

Japan is expanding its coronavirus state of emergency for a second week in a row, adding several more prefectures as a surge in infections fueled by the Delta variant that is straining the country's health care system.

The Japanese capital has been under the emergency since July 12, but new daily cases have increased more than tenfold since then to about 5,000 in Tokyo and 25,000 nationwide. Hospital beds are quickly filling and many people must now recover at home, including some who require supplemental oxygen.

Japan has weathered the pandemic better than many other countries, with around 15,600 deaths nationwide since the start, but its vaccination efforts lag behind other wealthy nations. About 40 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, mainly elderly people.

Dr. Shigeru Omi, top medical advisor for the government, criticized International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach for returning to Tokyo to attend Tuesday's opening of the Paralympics.

"Right now, the government is requesting people to telework and (Bach) is coming back just for that," Omi said, responding to a question from an opposition lawmaker in parliament.

"When the government is making those requests to the people, why is the Olympic leader, president Bach, coming all the way to Tokyo. Anyone with normal, common sense should be able to think that he has already come once and even visited Ginza."

International Paralympic Committee spokesman Craig Spence confirmed the IPC is in contact with two Paralympic athletes from Afghanistan who have left the country. He declined to speculate whether they might eventually reach Tokyo for the Paralympics.

"There's a lot of speculation going on where these Afghan athletes are," Spence said. "I'm not going to tell you where they are because this isn't about sport, this is about human rights and keeping people safe."

He added they were in a "safe place".

Several reports say the two athletes－Hossain Rosouli and Zakia Khudadadi－may have arrived in Australia.

Agencies