Chinese track and field athlete Liu Cuiqing and Xu Donglin at the Women's 200m-11T event at the Tokyo Paralympic Games. Photo: Sina Weibo
Visually impaired Chinese track and field athlete Liu Cuiqing won her second gold medal on Saturday during the Women's 200m-11T event at the Tokyo Paralympic Games. With her partner and guide Xu Donglin, Liu won applause from netizens on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo.
During Saturday's competition, Liu finished her event in 24.94 seconds to take first place. Two Brazilian runners Thalita Vitoria Simplicio da Silva and Jerusa Geber dos Santos won the silver and bronze respectively.
There was a touching moment after the Chinese duo won the event. Xu held his partner, draped in the Chinese national flag, up high to celebrate their success.
Liu, a 31-year-old veteran who won her first gold medal in the Women's 400m-11T Final at the Tokyo Paralympic Games on August 28. The competition was also with the help of Xu.
As the news about their accomplishment and the special moment caught on camera quickly spread on Chinese social media, netizens applauded the pair.
"This is a gold shared by two, even though Xu Donglin is not the medal's owner. This could never have been achieved without him being her eyes," posted one netizen on Sina Weibo.
"I watched the previous event and I felt that the 200 meters tested the tacit understanding between the two even more as they had less time to adjust. The fact that they were synchronized at the beginning of the event gave me goosebumps. Impressed," Zhang Lin, a fan of the Games in Beijing, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Running right alongside Liu, Xu acted as her eyes to assist the 31-year-old veteran to success. They have been paired up for more than eight years. Before the Tokyo Paralympic Games, they have set great records at other major competitions such as winning five golds at the 2014 Incheon Asian Para Games and grabbing two gold medals at the 2016 Rio Paralympics Games.
"He is my eyes, pointing the way for me in the darkness," Liu once told media.