CHONGLI: China’s Para cross-country skier Yang Hongqiong clinched the women’s long-distance sitting gold in a narrow win over American star Oksana Masters at the Beijing Winter Paralympics here on Sunday.

32-year-old Paralympic debutant Yang finished the 15km race in 43 minutes and 6.7 seconds, followed by Masters of the same age in 43:38.3 and China’s Li Panpan in 45:17.0.

“Frankly speaking, I did expect a medal but not a gold,” said Yang, who won China’s fifth gold at the ongoing Beijing Winter Paralympic Games. “I knew the opponents were very competitive.”

“I just concentrated on myself. When I finished the race, I felt like completing homework at school,” added Yang, who used to play wheelchair basketball.

American skier Masters, who was born with tibial hemimelia, had swept eight gold medals in the sprint, middle, and long-distance sitting events at world championships since 2017 and was crowned in the Para biathlon women’s sprint sitting here on Saturday.

In the first half of the race, the lead went seesaw between Yang and Li, and Masters followed closely.

“I set a target to a podium finish before the race, and finally I made it,” said Li.

After seven kilometers, Masters overtook Li and competed with Yang tightly until the end but she had to settle for a silver with a gap of 32.1 seconds.

“All three Chinese girls (including bronze medallist Li and fifth-placed Ma Jing) are very strong in their core and in their classification, so I knew that was going to be very challenging,” said Masters.

“I also knew that they did not race yesterday (in Para biathlon) and I did, so that also made it a really challenging race, ” she added after the game. “It’s great. This will elevate the sport in China for the future.” Xinhua