Belgium's table tennis star Laurens Devos retains his Paralympic crown

Belgium’s table tennis superstar Laurens Devos has retained the Paralympic crown he won five years ago by beating Australia’s Ma Lin in the final of the men’s singles class 9 at Tokyo 2020 on August 28.

Laurens Devon in action against Lin Ma in the Table Tennis Men's Singles Class 9 Gold Medal match at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium in Tokyo on August 28, 2021. (Photo: Olympic Information Services)
Laurens Devon in action against Lin Ma in the Table Tennis Men's Singles Class 9 Gold Medal match at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium in Tokyo on August 28, 2021. (Photo: Olympic Information Services)

The 21-year-old, who has had extraordinary success in the sport since he burst on to the scene as a 14-year-old, won the match 3-1 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium on Day 4 of the Paralympic Games. He went down the first set down but came back in the second to win 9-11, 11-6, 11-3, 11-3.

Devos had been favourite going into the match, but Ma was a formidable opponent. The 31-year-old won the Paralympic singles title in London 2012 and is a three-time Paralympic champion in the team event.

There were five table tennis finals on Day 4. China scooped up two of the gold medals and both were re-runs of the finals in Rio 2016. In the men's class 3, three-time Paralympic singles champion Feng Panfeng beat Germany’s Thomas Schmidberger on 3-2. His compatriot Liu Jing made it a double celebration when she won her fourth Paralympic singles gold medal in the women's classes 1-2 after beating her Rio 2016 opponent, Korea’s Seo Su Yeon, 3-1.

It was a perfect Paralympic debut for USA’s Ian Seidenfield, 20, in class 6, who beat two-time Paralympic and world champion Denmark’s Peter Rosenmeier 3-0. His victory came almost 29 years after his father Mitchell won men’s singles gold at the Barcelona 1992 Paralympic Games.

In the women’s class 11, Elena Prokofeva, 50, of the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) overpowered the world and European champion France’s Lea Ferney 3-1, who took home silver.

South Africa's track and field star athlete Anrune Weyers wins her first-ever Paralympic gold. The athlete who already has two silver medals and a bronze (Rio 2016, London 2012) clocked in a season's best of 56.05 over Venezuela's Lisbeli Marina Vera Andrade who took silver followed by RPC's Anastasila Soloveva.

In a rerun of their match back in Rio 2016, Bebe Vio wins again against China’s Zhou Jingjing after the Italian fencer scored 15-8 in the gold medal match in individual foil.

The New Zealander has become the first woman F37 to break the 15m barrier in the shot put. The current world champion won her first Paralympic medal.

Lisa is coached by her sister Valerie Adams, the first woman to win medals at four Olympics in a single event.

Switzerland's Marcel Hug storms to gold in the 5000m T54 in a wheelchair he helped design with Swiss engineers.

This is Hug's third gold medal at the Paralympic Games after having won two gold medals in the 800m T54 and the marathon T54 in Rio.

Tigist Gezahagn Menigstu made history for her country as she won the women's 1,500m T13 with a time of 4:23.24.

Ethiopia had only claimed two silver medals at Paralympic Games before through track athletes Wondiye Fikre Indelbu and Tamiru Demisse at London 2012 and Rio 2016, respectively.

Tokyo 2020