ParalympicsGB history maker Rachel Choong, the first female to represent Great Britain in Para-badminton at a Paralympic Games, won her opening women’s singles SH6 group match at La Chapelle Arena.
Choong, 30, came back from a game down to beat Peru’s Rubi Milagros Fernandez Vargas in a decider to put herself on course for a place in the quarter-finals.
Elsewhere, British Para-rower Benjamin Pritchard, fifth in Tokyo, set a Paralympics Games best time in the PR1 men’s single sculls heats in 8:51.26 to reach the final. There was also a world best for Frankie Allen, Josh O’Brien, Giedre Rakauskaite, Ed Fuller and cox Erin Kennedy in the PR3 mixed coxed four, shaving more than three seconds off their own previous record.
GB’s wheelchair rugby team followed up victory over Australia with a narrow 55-53 win over Denmark in their preliminary-round Group B match , while Para-archer Phoebe Paterson Pine beat Ecuador’s Diana Gonzabay Guaman to progress.
Zakia Khudadadi, from Afghanistan, became the first member of the Paralympic Refugee team to win a medal in Paris with bronze in the K44 -47kg Para-taekwondo category.
The 25-year-old, one of eight members of the Paralympic Refugee Team, said she hopes her achievement “sends a message for all the refugees in the world to follow hope, follow freedom and follow peace”.
