Both the Chinese men's and the women's goalball teams snatched four wins in a row in the preliminary round of the Beijing Paralympics on Wednesday.

In the match against Brazil in men's Pool B, Brazil scored first but China's Yao Yongquan replied with three goals in 40 seconds.

Three minutes into the game China took a 6-1 lead and it was just a matter of time before they got 10 in front of Brazil to end the game.

With six minutes left in the second half, China broadened the margin into 14-4 and the match immediately ended with China's big win.

Star thrower Chen Liangliang didn't play in this game for injury but Yang Chunhong stepped up to fill his shoes with four goals.

"We played against Chinese team before, but we still didn't expect them to be so strong now. We have been trying to seek the opportunity to attack, but unfortunately, China can almost block out any throw by us. They've done an excellent job," said Brazilian coach Nascimento Freitas.

"We have strong offence as well as solid defence. Our changing attacking tactics made it hard for our opponents to predict, so we scored easily," said China's coach Zhang Yong.

With four straight wins, China now top Pool A. "I don't know who we are going to play in the quarterfinals yet. But whoever they are, we have the confidence to beat them," said Zhang.

Compared to the men's easy win, the Chinese women's team earned their win hard against Sweden.

Sweden, the bronze medallists at Sydney Paralympics, took a 2-1 lead at halftime.

In the second half, China's Wang Ruixue, who suffered injury during training, then came on for her first game of the tournament and made an instant impact.

Wang leveled the score twice at 2-2 and 3-3. With only two minutes to go, Wang scored two more goals and sealed China's 5-3 win.

"I did not expect to score four goals," said Wang Ruixue, whose injury had not recovered completely, "when I'm needed, I will definitely go for it, and I totally forgot the pain while playing."

"The players were not in the form," said Coach Shao Baolin, "maybe they were still in the excitement for the win over the United States yesterday."

"Wang is our most competent attacker, and I have to let her play in such an unfavored situation," said Shao, "and now we have qualified for the semifinals."

Another match on attention was between hot favorites Lithuania and defending champions Denmark in men's Pool A. But without any suspense, Lithuania thrashed Denmark 10-1 as their fourth straight win, while Denmark had to fight an uphill battle to qualify for the quarterfinals with only one win.

Slovenia remained the other undefeated team as Lithuania in men's Pool A, by beating Spain 11-9. During the other Pool A match, Finland outplayed Belgium 8-5.

In men's Pool B, the Athens bronze medallists the United States took their second win by downing Iran 4-3. The Athens silver medallists Sweden defeated Canada 6-5 for their third victory.

On the women's court, defending gold medallists Canada triumphed 1-0 over Germany. The Athens bronze medallists Japan suffered their fourth loss, the same as Germany, going 2-1 down to Denmark. The Athens runner-up America drawed 2-2 with Brazil.

The Chinese men's team next play against Iran and the women's take on Japan on Wednesday.

(Xinhua News Agency September 10, 2008)