Taekwondo athlete Khwansuda Phuangkitcha won the first medal of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games for Thailand on Thursday night.
The 23-year-old two-time world champion edged Iran's Maryam Abdollahpour Deroei in the golden round after a 4-4 draw to claim a bronze medal in the women's K44 47kg category.
Khwansuda defeated Nurcihan Ekinci of Turkey 8-4 in the quarter-finals before losing to Uzbekistan's Ziyodakhon Isakova in the semi-finals 3-5.
"I'm proud to have won a bronze medal. I made some mistakes today. I wish I could have done better. I hope to come back and compete again at the Paralympics and become a champion," said Khwansuda.
Thailand's Dararat Asayut, left, and Chilchitparyak Bootwansirina in action during their women's doubles WD5 semi-final match against China's Liu Jing and Xue Juan.
Khwansuda also won bronze in the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago. She was a gold medallist at the Hangzhou Asian Para Games.
Meanwhile, table tennis players Dararat Asayut and Chilchitparyak Bootwansirina had to settle for a bronze medal after losing to China's Liu Jing and Xue Juan 3-1 in the women's doubles WD5 semi-finals yesterday.
The pair took the first game 11-9 but the Chinese rallied to win the next three 13-11, 12-10, 117 to secure their place in the gold medal match.
Dararat and Chilchitparyak defeated Giada Rossi and Michela Brunelli of Italy 3-1 in the quarter-finals on Thursday, which guaranteed them a bronze medal.
In the men's doubles MD8 quarter-finals, Wanchai Chaiwut and Yuttajak Glinbancheun also guaranteed themselves a bronze medal after defeating Japan's Genki Saito and Kazuki Shichino 3-0.
They were due to play China's Cao Ningning and Feng Panfeng in the semi-finals later last night.
In another other taekwondo event on Thursday, Thanwa Kaenkham, a bronze medallist in Hangzhou, failed to make the podium after he lost to Azerbaijan's Sabir Zeynalov 4-12 in the bronze medal contest of the men's K44 58kg category.
Thanwa had earlier lost to Israel's Asaf Yasur 23-6 in the quarter-finals before beating France's Bopha Kong 21-3 in the repechage round to secure his place in the bronze medal clash.
Meanwhile French swimmer Ugo Didier collected the host nation's first gold at La Defense Arena on Thursday.
Didier, who was born with clubbed feet and has reduced use of his legs, won the 400m freestyle event in the S9 category. Didier, 22, timed 4min 12.55sec to finish ahead of Simone Barlaam of Italy.
Brazilian swimmer Gabrielzinho won the third Paralympic title of his career. The 22-year-old claimed the men's 100m backstroke S2 title.
Medals were also on offer in track cycling, swimming, table tennis and taekwondo on Thursday.
The action started too in archery, sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, badminton, goalball -- a form of football for the visually impaired but played with hands -- and boccia, a version of bowls.
Paralympic powerhouses China dominated the last Paralympics in Tokyo with 96 gold medals and have again sent a strong team. Chinese riders Zhangyu Li and Xiaomei Wang won golds in track cycling in early action in Paris. bangkok post/afp