PARIS, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) — Chinese para swimmer Jiang Yuyan claimed her fourth gold in Paris by breaking the world record in the women’s 100m freestyle S7 at the Paralympic Games on Wednesday.
Jiang qualified for the final with the third-fastest time in the heats, but she stepped up in the evening to secure the title with a time of 1:09.68.
The previous world record of 1:10.86 was also set by the 19-year-old last year.
“I am excited. It’s amazing. I didn’t think I could do this, but I did it,” said Jiang, who has won four golds and still has two more events to go.
Jiang, who won two gold medals, one silver, and one bronze at the Tokyo Paralympic Games three years ago, lost her right arm and leg after a car accident when she was four years old.
“I have never felt sorry for myself,” said Jiang. “I have never felt there was any difficult time in my life.”
Also in the pool, Jessica Long from the United States claimed her 17th Paralympic title by winning the women’s 400m freestyle S8 in 4:48.74.
The 32-year-old has won gold at every Games since Athens 2004 when she was 12 and now has 30 Paralympic medals.
“This is my sixth Paralympics that I’ve proven that I can win a gold medal. I just tried to channel and put my head down, and I was like: ‘You know what? This last 50m might hurt, but not doing well might hurt even more,'” she said.
At Stade de France, Raoua Tlili from Tunisia won the women’s discus F41 with a season-best throw of 36.55 meters. Five days ago, she took the gold in shot-put with a throw of 10.40 meters.
The 34-year-old has achieved the shot put-discuss double at three consecutive Games.
In track cycling, British Sarah Storey won the women’s C5 individual time trial in 20 minutes 22.15 seconds, which is her 18th Paralympic gold, while Oksana Masters from the United States took her 18th Paralympic medal after winning the women’s H4-5 individual time trial in 23:45.20.
After Day 7, China top the medal tally with 62 golds and 135 medals in total, while Britain and the United States sit on second and third respectively with 33 and 25 gold medals.