Wheelchair racers Prawat Wahoram and Pongsakorn Paeyo won Thailand's first two gold medals of the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.
Veteran Prawat, 35, won the men's 5,000m T54 title, while teenager Pongsakorn was champion in the men's 400m T53.
Table tennis star Rungroj Thainiyom.
Prawat clocked 11.01.71min to claim his sixth Paralympic gold, ahead of Marcel Hug of Switzerland (11.02.04) and Kurt Fearnley of Australia (11.02.37).
Thailand's world champion and hot favourite Rawat Tana had a disappointing race, finishing sixth in 11.02.72.
It is Prawat's sixth gold medal since making his Paralympic debut at Sydney 2000 but first since Beijing 2008.
The Sa Kaeo native has also won six silver and one bronze medals.
With Rawat and Hug in the event, Prawat was considered an outsider to win gold in the 5,000m T54 event but he proved his critics wrong.
"I am happy to win back the title I lost four years ago in London,'' said Prawat.
"I still have a chance to win more medals in the 1,500m, 800m and 4x400m relay. Please continue giving me support."
Khon Kaen-born Pongsakorn, 19, crossed the finish line in 47.91sec to beat Brent Lakatos of Canada (48.53) and Pierre Fairbank of France (49.00).
It is Pongsakorn's second medal of the Rio Games, having finished second behind Lakatos in the 100m race.
Pongsakorn, Thailand's first medallist in Rio, has two more events -- the 800m and 4x400m relay.
Prawat and Pongsakorn will each receive a 7.2 million baht bonus from the National Sports Development Fund for winning a gold medal.
Pongsakorn will also receive another 4.8 million baht thanks to his silver medal.
Chutinant Bhirombhakdi, president of the Paralympic Committee of Thailand, praised Prawat and Pongsakorn for their fine performances.
"Prawat is Thailand's legendary Paralympian. As for Pongsakorn, we expected him to gain experience in Rio and shine in the next Paralympics but he did exceed our expectations," he said.
"There are several days to go and I am confident that we can win more gold medals."
Thailand hope to take home at least four gold medals at the Rio Paralympics which end on Sept 18.
Meanwhile, defending table tennis champion Rungroj Thainiyom failed to live up to his billing.
The 29-year-old lost 3-1 (11-3, 11-9, 10-12, 11-3) to world No.1 Alvaro Valera of Spain in the semi-finals of the men's singles Class 6.
It was sweet revenge for Valera who was defeated by Rungroj in the final at London 2012.
Valera, however, lost 3-2 to No.2 Peter Rosenmeier of Denmark in this year's final.
Rungroj got a consolation prize when he beat Park Hong-Kyu of South Korea in the third-place play-off.
A bronze medal is worth three million baht under the National Sports Development Fund's bonus scheme.
"I am sorry that I could not win the gold medal for the fans,'' Rungroj said.
In boccia, defending champions Thailand will today take on Japan in the final of the mixed team BC1-2.
The Thais -- Pattaya Tadtong, Worawut Saengampa, Subin Tipmanee and Watcharaphon Vongsa -- are scheduled to take on Japan at 5.30am this morning, Thai time.
Since joining the Paralympics in 1984, Thailand have won 15 gold, 19 silver and 21 bronze medals.
Meanwhile, three weeks ago, organisers and event fans were worried that the 2016 Paralympics would not be well-attended.
But when Sao Paulo resident Marco Fumis arrived at a lively Olympic Park on Saturday, he was blown away with what he saw.
"I'm positively surprised by this,'' said Fumis. "We are really emotional people, and I think we realised how important it is for not only the Olympics but the Paralympics. A lot of us are here to better understand how these athletes do what they do, so we're here to support.''
The fan support is significant. The 170,000 tickets sold for events at Olympic Park on Saturday, surpassed the one-day total for some days at the recent Olympics.
"It was a really, really cool environment because usually we have like five people in the stands and now we have an entire gym,'' US women's sitting volleyball player Heather Erickson said after her team swept Iran 3-0.
On Sunday, 46,000 tickets were sold at Olympic Stadium, the track and field venue separate from Olympic Park, according to the International Paralympic Committee.
"Everybody wanted to talk about 'What about London?''' IPC spokesman Craig Spence said, referring to the 2012 London Paralympics, for which a record 2.7 million tickets were sold. "But [Saturday] surpassed it for me.''