Chinese Wang new king of Paralympic judo

Wang Yunfeng of China had said hisdream was to have the national flag raised at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games.

And on Sunday afternoon, the dream came true.

Twenty-nine-year-old Wang became the new Paralympic champion inthe 73kg category after his triumph over the experienced Brazilian Eduardo Amaral in the final bout Sunday afternoon.

A native in northern Chinese province Shanxi, Wang has been in the sport for six years.

The Chinese well used an excellent technique - an uchi-mata, which earned him an ippon within eleven seconds of the final. Earlier, he had beaten Sydney gold medallist Stephen Moore of the United States in a dramatic match.

Moore finally earned a place on the podium by overcoming Ukrainian Sergiy Sydorenko in the third place match.

The second bronze medal was claimed by the skilled Iranian Hani Asakereh who beat Matthias Krieger of Germany by an ippon.

Krieger had previously lost in the final of Table A to Eduardo Amaral of Brazil who would later claim the silver in the event.

The competition in the 73kg category was very tough as expected from early this morning, when Paralympic Judo legend Simon Jackson of Britain was eliminated from the first round in a shocking defeat by Sydorenko.