Australia’s 37-year gold medal drought in Paralympic table tennis has come to a glorious end after Lina Lei and Qian Yang won their respective women’s singles finals in Tokyo.
Lei, who represented China up until a few years ago, became a six-time Paralympic gold medallist after coming from behind to beat world No.1 Guiyan Xiong in the women’s singles Class 9.
Lei won three games to two, prevailing 6-11 11-5 11-5 9-11 11-5 to become the first Australian to snare a Paralympics gold medal in table tennis since Terry Briggs in 1984.
An hour later, Yang added another gold medal to Australia’s tally with a three-games-to-one victory over Brazilian Bruna Costa Alexandre in the women’s Class 10 category.
It boosted Australia’s gold medal tally in Tokyo to 10.
Yang was just four points away from victory at 7-2 up in the fourth before suffering a major case of nerves.
Costa Alexandre reeled off the next five points to level the scores, but Yang held her nerve when it mattered most to secure the win.
It was her first Paralympics singles gold medal after winning silver at both Rio and London while competing for China.
Lei on the other hand had already won five Paralympic gold medals – including two singles – while competing for China.
She now has a singles gold medal to her name while representing Australia.
Lei blew a 7-5 lead in the fourth game, but she bounced back to shoot out to a 5-0 lead in the fifth.
From there she was never headed, sealing the win on her third match point.
“I’m very happy. But more than that I just wanted to enjoy this competition,” she said.
“I didn’t think too much about what the outcome would be be. I wasn’t expecting it. I told myself to take it one point at a time.
“In the second and third games I did well. In the fourth, my mentality wasn’t great. In the fifth I told myself I have to be more decisive.
“We have played many times. Our levels are close. The main difference is our mentality and making tactical adjustments.”
AAP
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