CHINESE athletes asserted home turf dominance on day two of the Winter Paralympics in Beijing, China, netting four gold medals in alpine and cross country skiing events.

The host nation now tops the medal tally with a haul of 16, taking the mantle from Ukraine, whose athletes netted seven medals, including three gold, in biathlon events yesterday.

Local crowds roared with excitement as Zhang Mengqiu, 19, won China’s first ever gold medal in para-alpine skiing in the Super G standing event today – she was on the podium with a silver in the women’s downhill event a day earlier.

Liang Jingyi, 19, zipped down the Yanqing mountain to claim the men’s standing Super G event.

Zhangjiakou Zheng Peng, 29, and Yang Hongqiong, 32, cleaned up in the men’s and women’s long distance cross country sitting categories.

“I actually felt worn out in the second half of the race, but then I heard them cheering for me. With that in the background, the more I skied, the more powerful I felt,” said Yang.

“We have proven that Team China has unlimited potential for winter sports.”

At the para-snowboarding qualifiers, Chinese athletes claimed the top four times in the men’s SB-UL category for competitors with upper limb impairments.

Crowd favourite Wang Pengyao, 21, goes into the final ranked third.

“Today, I challenged myself and made breakthroughs,” he said.

Winter sports are still in their infancy in China, but growing in popularity after the country built 650 skating rinks and 800 ski resorts in recent years.

China made its Winter Paralympic debut at the Salt Lake City 2002 Games, but won their first medal in 2018 in PyeongChang – claiming gold in wheelchair curling.

However, being on home ground is not helping the country’s wheelchair curling team defend their title.

The team lost its second successive match today – going down 5-1 to Sweden after a 7-3 defeat to Canada the previous day.

Coach Yue Qingshuang said team members feel the burden of high expectations on home ice.

“It has probably got to do with the fact that we are on home ground.

“There is more pressure, and everyone wants to do well too much.”

The team is hoping for better fortunes in their evening match against Estonia today. – AFP, March 6, 2022.