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For the first time since 1964, Australia has won a Paralympic table tennis doubles gold medal, with the women’s pairing, Lina Lei and Qian Yang, prevailing 3-1 over Chinese Taipei.
In a battle of the top seeds, the lower ranked Australians blew away their opponents, Tzu Yu Lin and Shiau Wen Tian, in the first two games with power and precision.
Lei and Yang, who reached the final without dropping a game, faced a minor setback in the third, but quickly regained their composure to wrap up the match in 29 minutes.
“I feel like we’re very familiar [with each other] … very close friend,” Lei said.
“It’s so exciting to get our first doubles gold medal.”
Earlier in the day the pair qualified for the gold medal match with a dominant 3-0 victory over Brazil.
For Lei (class 9) and Yang (class 10), the gold medal is the latest in a long list of accomplishments.
Both are currently top of the World Table Tennis rankings and defending Paralympic gold medallists in their respective singles classifications.
In Tokyo, they also took out the silver medal for Australia in the teams event and before that, Lei won five gold and two silver medals for China across the four prior Paralympic Games, while Yang represented China in 2012 and 2016, winning one gold and three silver medals.
“On the table, they have been playing with each other for years and off the table like they said, they’re the best friends,” coach Maggie Meng said.
Lei and Yang will start next week’s singles tournament in the quarter finals, having received a bye in the opening round of 16.
RESULT
Women’s Doubles (WD20) F: AUS LEI Lina / YANG Qian def TPE LIN Tzu Yu / TIAN Shiau Wen 11-7, 11-6, 3-11, 12-10
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By: Laurie Lawira, Paralympics Australia
Published: 1 September 2024
