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By Michael Place
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- China won five athletics gold medals and 12 in total to extend their lead at the top of the Paralympic Games standings on Wednesday.
There were also three victories for Chinese athletes in wheelchair fencing and swimming as well as a gold medal in shooting.
China ended the day with 75 gold, 58 silver and 39 bronze medals. Britain was second with 43 gold and Ukraine third with 31.
Zou Lijuan gave China a flying start in the morning by setting a new world record to win the women's shot put F34 final. The 22-year-old posted a best throw of 8.75m, eclipsing the previous benchmark of 8.60m.
Poland's Lucyna Kornobys took silver with 8.00m and New Zealand's Jessica Hamill secured bronze with 7.54m.
It was Zou's second gold medal here after her triumph in the javelin F34 on Friday.
China set a new world record to win the women's 4x100m T11-13 final. The Chinese team of Zhou Guohua, Shen Yaqin, Jia Juntingxian and Liu Cuiqing clocked 47.18 seconds to beat the previous record of 48.33, also set by China in April.
Brazil were second in 47.57 and Colombia third in 51.93.
Li Lu recorded a personal best 58.09 seconds to win the women's 400m T47 final.
The 21-year-old beat South Africa's Anrune Liebenberg by 0.79 sec, with Japan's Sae Tsuji claiming bronze in 1 minute 0.62sec.
Teenager Wen Xiaoyan smashed her own world record to clinch gold in the women's T37 long jump. The 18-year-old leapt 5.14 meters to beat the previous mark of 4.92m she set in Beijing in April.
Germany's Franziska Liebhardt took silver, 0.72m behind Wen, and Australia's Jodi Elkington-Jones claimed bronze with a best jump of 4.30m.
Zhou Xia caused one of the biggest upsets of the Rio Paralympics athletics competition by beating Australian world record holder Isis Holt in the women's 100m T35 final.
The 17-year-old crossed the line in 13.66 seconds to edge out Holt by nine hundredths of a second, with Britain's Maria Lyle taking bronze in 14.41.
"I wasn't expecting to win so I am really happy. I was just hoping to finish in the top three," Zhou told the Paralympic News Service.
Rong Jing claimed China's sixth wheelchair fencing title here by winning the women's individual foil category A title.
The 27-year-old defeated Yu Chui Yee of Hong Kong, China, 15-8 in the final.
"I'm very, very happy. I'm so happy to be able to participate at the Paralympic Games in such a beautiful city and winning a gold makes me even happier," Rong said.
Another Chinese athlete to win fencing gold was Feng Yanke, who beat countryman Hy Daoliang 15-11 in the men's individual foil category B final.
The day's most keenly anticipated fencing duel was the individual foil category A final between China's Ye Ruyi and Hungary's Richard Osvath.
Seven-time world champion Ye secured his third consecutive Paralympic title in his pet event by winning the match 15-8.
Afterwards he revealed his intention to retire, saying his body could no longer cope with the rigors of top-level competition.
"It was difficult for me to win gold here," said the 29-year-old, who lost his left leg in a car accident in 1992.
"I could feel my physical capacity has kind of declined, it's not as good as it used to be. Since winning back-to-back Paralympic gold medals everyone has wanted to defeat me. I felt a lot of pressure from all the young athletes here, who are very competitive.
In addition to winning the individual foil category A at the London 2012 and Beijing 2008 Games, Ye also triumphed in the team event in London and the individual sabre category A in Beijing.
In swimming, Cheng Jiao secured her second gold medal here by winning the women's 50m breaststroke SB3.
The 22-year-old touched the wall in 58.28 seconds to beat Ukraine's Mariia Lafina by more than three seconds. Mexico's Patricia Valle grabbed bronze in 1:02.40.
Cheng also won the 150m individual medley SM4 title on Monday.
Jin Zhipeng set a new world record to win the men's 50m breaststroke SB3 final.
Jin finished in 47.54 seconds, beating Miguel Luque of Spain by 0.93sec. Italy's Efrem Morelli earned bronze in 49.92
"I have been swimming close to the world record in training but to beat it by nearly a second is a big improvement," Jin said after the race.
Jin has also won two silver medals and one bronze at these Games.
Huang Wenpan smashed his own world record to clinch his third gold medal of these Games in the 50m breaststroke SB2.
The 21-year-old touched the wall in 50.65 seconds, to beat his previous mark of 52.48.
It was a clean sweep of medals for China with Li Tingshen taking silver in the event in 51.78 and Huang Chaowen bronze in 54.29.
Huang also won the mixed 4x50 freestyle 20 points on Friday and the 50m freestyle S3 on Tuesday.
Shooter Zhang Cuiping beat Abdullah Sultan Alaryani of the United Arab Emirates with her final shot to take gold in the R6 mixed 50m rifle prone SH1.
Zhang, who finished with 206.8 points, overturned a 1.2-point deficit with two series' remaining to win by a margin of just 0.3 points.
Serbia's Laslo Suranji claimed bronze with 185.2 points.
"I tried my best on the last shot to try and win and it happened, Zhang said. "I was so happy to win gold.
"It's been a long time since China has had a champion in this competition so I thought about nothing and just decided to enjoy the competition."
The 28-year-old also won gold in the R8 50m rifle 3P SH1 on Tuesday and took silver in the 10m AR standing SH1 on September 8.
