With five Paralympic titles in a single day on Monday, the Blues have sent the counters soaring at the Games and equalled their total of titles acquired in Tokyo, eleven, three years ago.
. Imperial Hanquinquant
To start this day full of success, it was necessary to turn to the Seine and the para-triathlon. After a day’s postponement due to poor water quality, all the para-triathletes set off from Pont Alexandre III for a finish in the superb setting of Les Invalides.
Under the sun, the announced French harvest in the discipline took place with four medals including two gold. Alexis Hanquinquant, 38 years old and huge favorite, retains his PTS4 title gleaned in 2021, with more than two minutes ahead.
“I was really in Paralympic form and I’m happy to have won like that,” said the French flag-bearer, unbeaten for five years.
The day had started ideally with Jules Ribstein’s title in the PTS2 category, reserved for severe physical disabilities.
“I’ve been thinking about this moment for so many years and doing everything for this moment… I still have trouble realizing it,” reacted the 37-year-old champion.
Thibaut Rigaudeau (silver) and Antoine Perel (bronze) also reached the podium with their guide Cyril Viennot and Yohan Le Berre, at the end of the triathlon event reserved for visually impaired athletes.
. Aubert, a great first
She made history on Monday morning. Aurélie Aubert was crowned Paralympic champion in boccia, one of the only purely Paralympic disciplines, and at 27 years old becomes the first French woman to have her name added to the list of winners of this sport related to pétanque.
It competes in the BC1 category, intended for people with cerebral palsy and similar conditions, resulting in severe impairment of all four limbs.
“It represents years of work and I hope that Boccia will be more publicized and better known in France,” she said.
The particularity of the category is the possibility of benefiting from an assistant allowing the stabilisation of the chair, as is the case of Aurélie Aubert.
. Mazur and Noakes as bosses
A bronze medal in the morning, gold in the afternoon. Lucas Mazur has not been idle. Three years after the silver in Tokyo, he and Faustine Noël first won the bronze medal in the mixed doubles in para-badminton (SL3-SU5) by beating the Thai pair Siripong Teamarrom/Nipada Seansupa (21-14, 21-16).
The Loiret native then retained his singles title in the SL4 category, which includes athletes with movement difficulties in a part of the body, the ankle for Mazur.
One golden badminton player can hide another, Charles Noakes, a few hours later, left no chance to the British Krysten Coombs (21-19, 21-13) in the SH6 category (small athletes) and won his first medal, the most beautiful possible.
. Boki, him again
Imperial in these Games, the Belarusian Ihar Boki, who is competing under a neutral banner, won his 20th Paralympic title at the end of the afternoon, the fourth in Paris, and equals the Frenchwoman Béatrice Hess.
After winning the 100m butterfly (S13, visually impaired swimmers), the 100m backstroke and then the 400m freestyle, he this time won the 50m freestyle in 23.65 seconds, relegating the Ukrainian Illia Yaremenko to twelve hundredths of a second. Another Ukrainian, Oleksii Virchenko, completed the podium.
Still in swimming, third title for the Brazilian star Gabriel dos Santos Araujo, with the 200m freestyle S2.
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