PARIS: Italian Paralympic superstar Bebe Vio has a chance for redemption on Thursday as she goes for gold in the wheelchair fencing team event after failing in her individual title defence, while the USA must beat Canada to reach the men’s wheelchair basketball final.

In one of the biggest shocks of the Paris Games, Vio—one of the faces of Nike’s marketing campaign for the event—lost her semi-final in the women’s foil category B on Wednesday. The Italian, who uses prosthetic arms after having all four limbs amputated when she contracted meningitis at the age of 11, was visibly furious with herself after she lost to Xiao Rong of China.

She regained her poise to won a bronze medal as Saysunee Jana of Thailand defeated Xiao to take the title. Vio, 27, put a brave face on the outcome. “(Xiao) deserved to get to the final for the gold, she was better than me, she was better prepared physically and mentally. As for me, I ‘was there’ but not as much as she was,” she said.

The bronze medal meant “a lot, it’s worth a lot, it’s beautiful, I’m really, really happy”, she said. On Thursday she joins her Italian teammates as they start their quest for gold against the USA in the ornate surroundings of the Grand Palais.

USA v Canada basketball battle

Italy are seeking to improve on their silver medal from the Tokyo Games three years ago. Another global face of the Paralympic movement, Oksana Masters, won her second gold of these Games as the Ukrainian-born US cyclist took the H5 road race title. Masters now has eight Paralympic golds.

In other sports, the USA men’s basketball team are aiming to emulate their Olympic counterparts by winning gold—but Canada stand in their way in the semi-finals. The Canadians are appearing at this stage for the first time since they won the gold medal at London 2012. The USA have won the two editions since and will be aiming to make it three in a row.

Britain face Germany in the other semi-final, with the Britons hoping to reach the final for the first time since Atlanta 1996. History was made in wheelchair tennis, when Guo Luoyao and Wang Ziying won a first ever medal for China at a Paralympics when they took bronze in the women’s doubles at Roland Garros.

Paris 2024 chief organiser Tony Estanguet said on Thursday that Sunday’s closing ceremony of the Paralympics, which is billed as a giant concert featuring the best of French electronic music, would be a highly symbolic end to a summer of Olympic and Paralympic sport in Paris.

“We really want this summer to end in the best way with a really great closing ceremony, for the Paralympics, but in fact what we are celebrating on Sunday evening is the end of the whole of Paris 2024.”

China were clear leaders in the medals table on 64 golds with Great Britain second on 33 and the USA third with 25, with the evening session still to come on Thursday. — AFP