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![China's defending champion He Juquan looks at his marks at the finishing line after the men's 50m backstroke S5 preliminary Sept. 8, 2008. [Xinhua]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20080909/000bcdb95f1d0a30203705.jpg "China's defending champion He Juquan looks at his marks at the finishing line after the men's 50m backstroke S5 preliminary Sept. 8, 2008. [Xinhua]")
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China's defending champion He Juquan looks at his marks at the finishing line after the men's 50m backstroke S5 preliminary Sept. 8, 2008. [Xinhua]
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After an exciting start for the Paralympic swimming on Sunday, world records continued to tumble on the second day's competition.
However, the most emotional moment on Monday did not come from gold winners.
China's defending champion He Juquan's courage illuminates the pool of the Water Cube and inspired those who are fighting destiny.
"Touch your heart, touch your soul." It might be the most proper words to describe the finals in men's 50m backstroke S5.
With both hands amputated, He had to touch the wall painfully with his head. He shattered the world record in the heat but failed to head the wall first in front of the powerful splash from Daniel Dias's arms.
The Brazilian caught up with He in the final 10 meters and touched the wall first beating He by just 0.15 seconds.
"It's really a pity. I feel that I have disappointed everyone, I blame myself on that. I dashed too hardly at the beginning, so I ran out of strength in the end," said He with a bunch of flowers from the fervent crowd.
No one will come to blame him. He lost the gold, but won the respect.
"It was sensational. He is a strong man and good swimmer. After the finish I had to look at the scoreboard and it took me a while to realize I had won. The match was decided on the touch, so it was more exciting," said the winner.
The hosts' only gold came in the men's 100m freestyle S8. After failing to clinch the deserved gold on Sunday, China's iconic swimmer Wang Xiaofu won the event in 58.84 seconds, a new Paralympic record.
"I proved that I am not bad. In this event I gave all I have. I want to give the flowers to my girlfriend and I want to say 'I love you' to her. I want to especially thank my parents, they came to watch my races both yesterday and today," Wang said.
"From now on I will have more power. I am confident of everything. My goal is to get more gold medals. The opponents are very strong, I will try as hard as I can," said the 20-year-old emulative Wang, who will swim in the other seven events in the following days.
Elsewhere, 14 world records in total were shattered from the 18 disciplines of the day.