Goalball: China´s debutants win men´s gold, women´s silver at Paralympics

The Chinese women played a very hard and close match against the United States, the silver medallists in Athens. The Americans won 6-5 in the end. China, the most stable team among all, once powered past the United States 4-0 in the preliminary stage.

"The Chinese goalball teams have made rapid progress in recent years," said China coach Shao Baolin. "And the women's team made a good performance during all the nine games at the Paralympics."

On the men's third-place playoff, the silver medallists from Athens Sweden outplayed the Athens bronze medallists the United States 5-2.

Slovenia kept their perfect record in the preliminary stage, and even defeated the world champions Lithuania. However they began to lose their force as entering the quarterfinals and suffered three losses in a row. They finally finished eighth after going down to Finland 6-5.

The defending gold medallists Denmark, far away behind what they were four years ago, only got the fifth, let alone their dream for the third straight gold medal.

On the women's court, Denmark routed Sweden 3-2 and won the bronze medal, which was their first podium finish in 20 years.

The Paralympic goalball tournament, kicking off on Sept. 7, featured 12 men's teams and eight women's teams and concluded here on Sunday.

(By Sportswriter Zhou Huimin)

Editor:Zhang Ning