By Nick Butler

Lei Xue was among several London 2012 winners to triumph on home soil on day one in Beijing ©Getty ImagesApril 14 - London 2012 champions were to the fore as five Asian records were broken by home athletes on the first day of the International Paralympic Committee Athletics Grand Prix in Beijing today. 


With the majority of athletes present using the event as a starting point for a season due to climax at October's Asian Para-Games in Incheon, the Chinese showed their superiority across the 54 events as they generally got the better of some strong international opposition. 

Of the London 2012 champions in action, Lei Xue won in the men's 100 metres T11 class and Huzhao Li tasted victory in the men's 200m T53, while there were also victories for Wenjun Liu and Junfei Chen in the women's 200m T54 and 400m T38 categories.

But it was a new generation of Chinese talent who were most dominant, led most of all by Lin Zhu as she broke two regional records, first in the morning session in the women's 100m T13 and then in the afternoon session in the 400m.

In recording 12.25sec for the 100m, Zhu lowered the previous best set by Japan's Uran Sawada at the 2010 Asian Para-Games by more than a second, while her 400m time was more than three seconds faster than that of compatriot Daqing Zhu in 2010.

The 2011 world silver medallist Jin Zheng clocked a superb 4min 55.74sec to take nearly a minute off the 11-year-old 1,500m T11 regional record, shortly before team-mate Junfei Chen, a winner over 200m at London 2012, smashed the 400m T38 Asian record by 26 seconds.

Other home winners were London 2012 champions Liwan Yang in the F53/54 javelin and Liangmin Zhang in the F11 discus, while another continental record came courtesy of F35 javelin thrower Jun Wang.

But there was some non-Chinese success on the opening day in Beijing, including for Italian world champion Martina Caironi, who won the T42/44/47 long jump. 

Italian world champion Martina Caironi was another winner on day one in Beijing ©Getty ImagesItalian world champion Martina Caironi was another winner on day one in Beijing
©Getty Images





The 24-year-old jumped 3.78 metres, but never threatened the world record of 4.38m set by Australia's Kelly Cartwright during London 2012. 

Another international victor was Syria's Mohamed Mohamed who won the F57 shot put with a best mark of 12.50m.

The competition will continue for two more days before reaching a conclusion on Wednesday (April 16).

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