China top Paralympic medal, British cyclist apologizes for outburst

China continued its medal clinching momentum at the London Paralympics on Friday, collecting seven golds on the second match day to lead the tally with 13-10-11, followed by Australia's 7-4-8 and Ukraine's 6-5-5. Britain descended to fourth place with 4-11-5. But the hosts got the most silver medals in the first two days. An eye-catching dispute appeared Friday when British cyclist Jody Cundy was disqualified from individual C4/5 1km time trial. Cundy's back wheel slipped after he started the race. Holding his hand up in the air, Cundy pulled off the track and went back into the start gate to wait for a chance of restart. Argued with UCI officials and commissars, Cundy's coach Chris Furber returned with empty hands. "The next thing I saw in the scoreboard was 'DNF' next to my name. My coach came back and gave me throat signal, and said that was it," said Cundy who shouted out some filthy words and smashed a bottle of water onto the floor. Furber insisted that they put Jody's bike in the gates as normally do but the gates didn't release properly. He counted it as a mishap which requires a restart. However, both the gate commissar and start commissar said the gate release was fine, so the chief commissar ruled that there wasn't a mishap. Furber asked UCI to review the TV footage but was refused. Louis Barbeau, the UCI technical delegate, called the incident as a "very unfortunate" and "sad" situation. Barbeau claimed that nothing went wrong with the gate. According to Barbeau, only three conditions represent a recognised mishap: either a puncture, a fall or the breakage of an essential part of the bicycle. Without these there cannot be a restart. Later, Cundy apologized for his outburst, saying, "I'd like to apologise to the IPC, UCI and all the friends, spectators and people that were here today that witnessed it." A moving story in Friday's competition came from Chinese powerlifter Feng Qi, who claimed the men's 52kg title. He attributed his success to a stone bar bell and his father's long- term support. Coming from a poor family, Feng, 21, who had poliomyelitis caused by a fever at the age of seven months, started powerlifting practise in 2002 as his upper limbs' strength was beyond imagination. "At that time, my family was not rich and we can not afford those formal devices. So my father used stone and pig iron to make a bar bell. He also made a powerlifting bench with bricks in the backyard," Feng said after the triumph. "At the beginning, I could train with the Henan provincial team for only a short period of time each year. I spent most of the practising time at home," Feng added. "My father suported me all the time, driving away mosquitos in the summer and holding umbrella for me in snowing winter," he said with tears in his eyes. Before the year 2008 when Feng was included in the national team, the stone bar bell and the father's love had been accompanying Feng. "My father has a heart problem. He has postponed the heart bypass operation many times," Feng admitted, adding that he had made phone call to his father just after his win, telling him to take care of his health first.