KUALA LUMPUR: Shuttler Cheah Liek Hou successfully defended his men's singles SU5 (physical impairment) gold medal at the Paris Paralympics yesterday.
Liek Hou had little difficulty overcoming Indonesia's Suryo Nugroho 21-13, 21-15 in the final at La Chapelle Arena in a match that lasted 41 minutes.
Liek Hou, 36, showed his experience as he remained calm throughout both games to retain the gold he won at Tokyo 2020. It was also Malaysia's first gold medal of the Paris Paralympics.
Suryo appeared to struggle with a right knee injury, which was strapped, and called for the trainer a number of times during the match.
In athletics earlier yesterday, Wong Kar Gee narrowly missed out on the podium after placing fourth in the men's long jump T12 (visual impairment) at Stade de France.
Kar Gee managed 6.85 metres which was just 0.03m behind third-placed Fernando Vasquez of Argentina. Azerbaijan's Said Najafzade (7.27m) and Uzbekistan's Doniyor Saliev (7.16m) took gold and silver respectively.
In swimming, Nur Syaiful Zulkafli qualified for the final of the men's 100m breaststroke SB4 (physical impairment) final after clocking 1:45.15s to place fifth from 10 swimmers in the preliminaries at Paris La Defense Arena.
Only the top-eight swimmers qualified for the final which will be held later today.
In archery, Daneshen Govinda Rajan-Nur Jannaton Abdul Jalil lost to Italy's Eleonora Sarti-Matteo Bonacina 147-141 in their mixed team compound open 1/8 elimination round clash at Esplanade des Invalides.
Malaysia won its first medal of the Paris Paralympics, a bronze, through sprinter Eddy Bernard in the men's 100m T44 (physical impairment) on Sunday.