China enters wheelchair curling final at Winter Paralympics

Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-16 22:20:11|Editor: Shi Yinglun
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PYEONGCHANG, March 16 (Xinhua) -- China booked a place in the wheelchair curling final of the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games, guaranteeing its first-ever Winter Paralympic medal.

Seven days into the Games, the United States took a dominant lead in medal tally with 30 medals in total, including 11 gold, 12 silver, and seven bronze medals on Friday.

China's wheelchair curling team became the first to qualify for the final, defeating the defending champions Canada 4-3 in the semis.

The Chinese team made a history in wheelchair curling, booking a meeting with the world champions Norway in the final scheduled for Saturday.

Skip Wang Haitao took an amazing last shot, which managed to thread through a sea of players, clinching victory for China.

"In training I have tried that shot so much, and if I try 10 times, then I do it two or three times. So I feel so lucky that I got us the point," Wang said. "I am so excited to reach the final. This is the first medal for China in the (Winter) Paralympics, so this is history for me," he added.

The U.S. team widened its lead over the Neutral Paralympic Athletes (NPA) in the medal table, adding three golds, five silvers and one bronze in the biathlon and snowboard events.

The NPA secured two more golds, taking its medal tally to 20, including eight golds, eight silvers and four bronzes, with two days left to the closing ceremony on Sunday.

The NPA refers to Russian para-athletes in PyeongChang. Russian athletes are banned from competing under their national flag because of an alleged state-sponsored doping scandal.

In the snowboarding event, banked slalom debuted as a discipline of snowboarding in the Winter Paralympics.

U. S. snowboarder Brenna Huckaby won her double gold in the women's banked slalom SB-LL1 class after taking a gold in Monday's snowboard cross.

The U.S. team took a one-two finish in the men's SB-LL1, capturing gold in the men's SB-UL class.

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