Tokyo Paralympics Digest: Stars Vio and McFadden deliver again

Two of the biggest stars at the Paralympics claimed medals on a busy Saturday in Tokyo. Fencer Beatrice Vio defended her title in style, while Tatyana McFadden won her 18th Paralympic medal. Germany also had a good day.

Two Paralympic favorites delivered on the big stage on Saturday as the Tokyo Paralympics continued to gather pace.

Beatrice 'Bebe' Vio, of Italy, successfully defended her women's Paralympic gold in fencing on Saturday as US wheelchair racing legend Tatyana McFadden won her 18th Paralympic medal.

Vio was in sensational form as she beat China's Zhou Jingjing 15-9 in the Women's Individual Foil Category B gold medal match, just as she had done in Rio five years ago.

The 24-year-old, who had both forearms and legs amputated when she contracted meningitis as an 11-year-old, screamed in joy before bursting into tears in the arms of her coach after the winning point was scored.

Later, McFadden took bronze in the women's T54 5,000m to extend her streak of finishing on the podium in every Paralympic race she has entered since 2008.

But she said just competing in Tokyo was a victory in itself, having been diagnosed with a blood-clotting disorder in 2017 that took almost two years to recover from.

"I'm on cloud nine," said the 32-year-old, who was born in Russia and raised in an orphanage until she was adopted at the age of six. "I was in a really dark spot because it took me 20 months to recover, and everyone was getting better in those 20 months."

Germany update

After a slow start in Tokyo, Germany picked up several medals on day 4. There were silvers for long jumper Leon Schäfer, who missed out on gold by just five centimeters, and table tennis player Thomas Schmidberger who also lost narrowly to Chinese player Panfeng Feng.

Schmidberger, who also took silver in Rio, said he was disappointed in the moment but "when I fall asleep next to the medal, everything will be fine again."

There were also bronze medals for wheelchair racer Merle Menje in the 5000 meter T54 class and Lindy Ave in the T38 100 meter sprint.

Gold medals

Great Britain put up another strong showing on Saturday, with gold medals for Thomas Young (T38 100m) and Sophie Hahn, who won the women's event. British husband and wife duo Neil and Lora Fachie also both picked up gold in cycling.

Elsewhere, China continued their domination in the medal table and Hamed Heidari, of Azerbaijan, broke his own world record by two meters to win the javelin.

Beatrice Vio repeated her 2016 Paralympic win