Fifth successive gold for Tunisian shot-putter at Paralympics and US wins first gold

PARIS (AP) — Tunisia’s Raoua Tlili won her fifth consecutive gold medal in shot put at her fifth Paralympics on Friday while the United States captured its first gold.

Tlili's throw of 10.40 meters at the Stade de France was good enough to win the F41 class for a third straight Games. Her first two shot put golds, in Beijing and London, were in the F40 class. The difference is in stature.

She is 1.33-meters (4-foot-4) tall and 34 years old, and proud of her latest achievement.

“It’s not easy as a short-stature person that is of my age ... especially if you compete against opponents who are 22, 25 years old,” Tlili said.

“The Algerians, the Tunisians, everyone who lives in Paris, came and got reunited to watch me. (I heard them saying) ‘Raoua, Raoua, gold, gold.’”

Tlili also won discus gold medals in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

Reigning Paralympic champion and world record holder Gia Pergolini defended her women’s 100-meter backstroke S13 title Friday, claiming the first gold medal for the United States.

Competing in her second event in Paris, Pergolini, who is from Atlanta, opened her signature race fast and fought off fatigue over the final 15 meters to finish in a time of 1 minute, 04.93 seconds.

“Usually for my 100 back, I know I go out really fast and my mindset was you’re going to go out really fast anyway so just pace yourself,” she said. "I’ve done this so many times so it’s kind of second nature to me."

The first para-athletics gold of the Paralympics was claimed by Brazil’s Julio Cesar Agripino in the men’s 5,000-meter T11 event for runners with a near-total visual impairment.

In a closely contested race, he broke the world record with a time of 14 minutes, 48.85 seconds, edging Japan’s Kenya Karasawa by three seconds, and fellow Brazilian Yeltsin Jacques, the previous world record-holder.

"Today, it's my day, my title. It means a lot,” Agripino said.

France claimed its second gold medal of the Games with cyclist Alexandre Léauté’s triumph in the men’s C2 3,000-meter individual pursuit.

Léauté, who also won gold in Tokyo, won by two seconds from Ewoud Vromant of Belgium, delighting the home crowd at the vélodrome in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.

Brazil's men's goalball team started its title defense with a 13-8 win over the United States in group play.

Goalball is for the vision impaired, and the three-member teams wear blackout glasses. The goals are nine-meters wide. The crowd must be silent so the players can hear the ball with bells inside.

Leomon Moreno led Brazil with six points. A veteran of four Paralympic Games, Moreno praised the high level of goalball in Brazil. “I’m very glad, because I can keep myself playing with these guys,” he said.

AP sports writer Tom Nouvian, and Gabriella Etienne and Ana Escamilla, students in the undergraduate certificate program at the Carmical Sports Media Institute at the University of Georgia, contributed.

AP Paralympics: https://apnews.com/hub/paralympic-games

U.S. goalball athlete Zion Walker blocks a shot in practice at the U.S. High Performance Center during the Paralympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, August 28, 2024. Team USA kept their facility open after the conclusion of the Olympic Games. (AP Photo/Mady Mertens)

Japan's Katsuya Hashimoto, left, looks to score during the U.S. vs Japan preliminary match of wheelchair rugby, at the Paralympic Games in Paris, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Japan won 45-42. (AP Photo/Avni Trivedi)

Paralympic athlete Zia Zhou, of China, wins the Women's 100m -T35 final, at the Stade de France stadium, during the 2024 Paralympics, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Israel's Adam Berdichevsky returns the ball to Italy's Luca Arca during their 2024 Paralympics men's Wheelchair singles tennis tournament first round match at Roland Garros Stadium in Paris, France, Friday Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Paralympic athletes compete at Women's 5000m - T54 round 1, at the Stade de France stadium, during the 2024 Paralympics, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Paralympic athlete Arjola Dedaj, of Italy, competes at Women's Long Jump -T11, in the Stade de France stadium, during the 2024 Paralympics, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand and Cambodia ’s foreign ministers exchanged opening statements in Singapore on Tuesday at the first meeting to settle a sea border dispute under a U.N. agreement on maritime law for compulsory conciliation.

At issue is territory claimed by both that is believed to contain large, exploitable amounts of natural gas and other hydrocarbons.

The decision to take the matter to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, was triggered by Cambodia in June after Thailand terminated a 25-year-old memorandum of understanding meant to resolve overlapping maritime claims.

Thailand’s decision to revoke the agreement came unilaterally after a sharp deterioration in relations and armed combat with Cambodia last year. The Southeast Asian neighbors fought over competing claims to territory along the land border in July and December. Several dozen civilians and soldiers on both sides were killed and hundreds of thousands of people displaced.

Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow and his Cambodian counterpart Prak Sokhonn led their delegations in the first conciliation meeting with the five-member UNCLOS commission, held in Singapore from Monday to Wednesday.

Cambodia called for a peaceful resolution, which “serves the peoples of both nations and contributes to peace, cooperation and shared prosperity in the region,” Prak Sokhonn said in his statement Tuesday.

He said Cambodia was compelled to consider other peaceful options and chose to initiate the UNCLOS proceedings “in keeping with its commitment to the rule of law and to the peaceful settlement of disputes.”

Sihasak said Thailand has been unwavering in its commitment to uphold international law and peaceful settlement in disputes. He argued that the revoked agreement “had produced no concrete progress,” as the two countries managed to hold only two meetings over a period of 25 years.

He said Thailand wished to “give negotiations a fresh start,” and that it had offered Cambodia an opportunity to hold direct talks, which Cambodia disregarded, before moving on to the UNCLOS conciliation process.

“Thailand stands ready to engage in this process constructively, with the aim of achieving, with the Commission’s assistance, a negotiated and equitable solution,” the Thai foreign minister said.

A fragile ceasefire between the two countries was agreed in late December, but tensions continue with sporadic incidents and large-scale deployment of military forces.

Any UNCLOS ruling isn’t binding on the parties involved, even though both countries are signatories to the international pact.

Thailand has been averse to having territorial issues decided by third parties rather than handled bilaterally. It has long felt a 1962 ruling by the International Court of Justice awarding Cambodia the hilltop Preah Vihear temple along their border to be unfair, contributing to ongoing tensions between the neighbors.

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Sopheng Cheang reported from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow, center, prepares to attend the first meeting of a conciliation commission between Thailand and Cambodia under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, in Singapore Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (Thailand Foreign Ministry via AP)