Wheelchair racers Pongsakorn Paeyo, Chaiwat Rattana and boccia player Worawut Saengampa claimed gold medals for Thailand at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Pongsakorn clocked 46.77sec to win the men's 400m T53 race at the Stade de France, earning the first gold of the Paris Games for Thailand on Sunday night.
Worawut made it two for the Kingdom when he won the men's individual BC2 title, defeating Muhammad Bintang Herlangga of Indonesia 6-1 in the gold medal match.
World champion Chaiwat claimed the third gold medal on Monday when he clocked 14.76sec to win the men's 100m T34 final -- a new Paralympic record.
Walid Ktila of Tunisia won silver in 15.14 and Canada's Austin Smeenk took bronze in 15.19.
Sunday's victory helped Pongsakorn complete a Paralympic Games hat-trick after his gold medal performances at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
Boccia player Worawut Saengampa celebrates on the podium with his gold medal.
The 27-year-old will look to earn another Paralympic treble in the 800m race on Thursday and a double in the 100m event on Wednesday.
Pongsakorn holds both a world record (46.11) and a Games record (46.61) in the 400m event. He is also a two-time world champion in the discipline (2019 and 2023).
Canada's Brent Lakatos took the silver medal in 47.24 and Brian Siemann of the United States won bronze in 47.84.
Another wheelchair racer, Athiwat Paeng-Nuea, won a silver medal in the men's 400m T54 event with a time of 44.67sec.
China's Dai Yunqiang won gold in 44.55 -- a new Games record -- breaking Athiwat's old record of 44.87. The bronze medal went to Daniel Romanchuk of the US in 45.11.
The 21-year-old, who also won the 400m silver in Tokyo, will defend his 100m title on Wednesday. He will also race in the 800m event on Thursday.
Watcharaphon Vongsa, who lost to Worawut in the semi-finals earlier in the day, defeated Robert Mezik of Slovakia 3-2 to win bronze in the men's individual BC2 event.
Para badminton player Sujirat Pookkham took a silver medal in the women's singles WH1 event on Monday. The Thai lost to Sarina Satomi of Japan 21-18, 13-21, 18-21.
Chaiwat Rattana of Thailand celebrates after winning the gold medal.
It was her second medal of the Games after her bronze in the women's doubles WH1-WH2 event with Amnouy Wetwithan on Sunday.
They defeated Cynthia Marthez and Ilaria Renggli of Switzerland 22-20, 27-25 in a battle for third place.
Meanwhile, Mongkhon Bunsun claimed a bronze medal in the men's singles SL3 event after he beat Japan's Daisuka Fujihara 21-15, 21-15 on Monday.
Siripong Teamarrom and Nipada Seansupa missed out on a podium finish after losing to Lucas Mazur and Faustine Noel of France 14-21, 16-21 in the mixed doubles SL3-SU5 bronze medal match on Monday.
First for Africa
Mariam Eniola Bolaji of Nigeria became the first African athlete to win a badminton medal at a Games -- Olympics or Paralympics -- when she clinched bronze in the women's singles SL3 on Monday.
The 18-year-old beat Ukraine's Oksana Kozyna 21-9, 21-9 to secure a podium finish three years after her coach, Bello Oyebanji, died in a road accident as she was preparing for the Tokyo Paralympics. It is also Nigeria's first medal at the Paris Paralympics.
Meanwhile the first openly transgender athlete in Paralympics history, Italian sprinter Valentina Petrillo, competed in the Paris Games on Monday.
Petrillo, 50, finished second in her heat of the T12 400 metres, a category for visually impaired athletes, in a time of 58.35sec and qualified for the semi-finals later on Monday.
Unlike her opponents in the race, she competed without a guide runner.
