Defending her title, Luca Ekler won the gold medal in the long jump T38, while table tennis player Péter Pálos finished third in the MS11 classification at the Paris Paralympic Games on Thursday.
Luca Ekler was greeted by extremely harsh conditions, with only 17 degrees Celsius and torrential rain at the Stade de France, where the Hungarian final was held at the start of the program, with Ekler competing as the Tokyo winner, world champion and world record starter, the absolute favorite. Ekler suffered a stroke in 2009 which left her paralyzed on her left side, but physiotherapy treatment has now left only her left hand with visible symptoms.
The 25-year-old para-athlete, the world champion and world record holder in the event, led the rain-soaked race throughout and triumphed with a 5.56m victory. Her dominance was demonstrated by the fact that German runner-up Nele Moos took the silver medal with 5.13.
She improved by four centimeters in the continuation and, with no one breaking the five-meter barrier in the second set, it was clear that she was now competing with only herself, her best this year (5.63) and the world record she set in Paris two years ago (5.82).
Ekler’s success was far from the end of the day for the Hungarian team, as table tennis player Péter Pálos also finished on the podium shortly afterwards. The para-athlete had already secured his podium place by winning his quarter-final on Wednesday, as bronze matches are not played in this sport. In Thursday’s semi-final, the Hungarian para-athlete lost 3:0 against Chen Po Yen of Taiwan.
In the first set, the Hungarian competitor tried to control the rallies, but his attacks were full of errors and he was trailing. In the second set, Pálos was furious to see that his solutions were not successful, as his Asian opponent defended well and returned almost all the balls. The crowd was treated to some long, spectacular rallies, but almost all of them were won by Pálos’ rival, who doubled his lead. At the beginning of the third set, Pálos led, but after 5-4, Chen turned the match around, which meant that the Taiwanese reached the final.
Born with a mild intellectual disability, Pálos won gold in London and Tokyo, and bronze in Rio de Janeiro and now in Paris.
With their results, Péter Pálos and Luca Ekler brought the Hungarian team’s tally to two gold, one silver and two bronze medals.
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