(BEIJING, September 9) -- The fourth day of play on Wednesday in the Table Tennis events at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games sees the first medals being awarded, all in the female events.

Gold, silver and bronze will be presented in Women's Individual Classes 1/2, Class 3, Class 4 and Class 5, the wheelchair categories, plus women's Individual Class 10 for standing players.

In Women's Individual Class 10, at the semifinal stage Natalia Partyka of Poland, the defending champion and No.1 seed, meets Michala La Bourdonnaye of the Czech Republic. The counterpart contest is an all Chinese affair with Hou Chunxiao facing Fan Lei.

In Women's Individual Class 3, Mateja Pintar of Slovenia, the reigning champion and No.1 seed, plays Li Qian of China at the penultimate stage, while Michela Brunelli of Italy faces Alena Kanova of Slovakia, the Athens 2004 bronze medalist.

In Women's Individual Class 4 semifinals, Borislava Peric of Serbia, the No.1 seed, meets Monika Sikora Weinmann of Germany, the gold medalist in 2004, and Zhou Ying of China plays Moon Sung-hye of the Republic of Korea.

In Women's Individual Class 5, Andrea Zimmerer of Germany, seeded No.1, opposes Gu Gai of China in the semifinals with the counterpart contest seeing Khetam Abuawad of Jordan in opposition to Ren Guixiang of China, the Athens champion.

In Women's Individual Classes 1/2, Clara Podda of Italy, seeded No.1, meets Liu Jing of China in the semifinals; Pamela Pezzutto of Italy confronts Isabelle Lafaye Marziou of France, the reigning champion.

In Women's Individual Classes 6/7, the top four seeds are all in action. Kelly Van Zon of Netherlands, seeded No.1, plays Natalia Martyasheva of Russia, seeded No.3. Yulia Ovsyannikova of Russia, seeded No.2 opposes Faiza Mahmoud Afify of Egypt, seeded No.4.

In Women's Individual Class 8, Thu Kamkasomphou of France, seeded No.1, meets her compatriot Claire Mairie and Josefin Abrahamsson of Sweden plays Zhang Xiaoling of China, the winner of Classes 6/8 in Athens.

In Women's Individual Class 9, Lei Lina of China, seeded No.1, plays Malgorzata Grzelak of Poland at the penultimate stage, with Neslihan Kavas of Turkey confronting Liu Meili of China. In Athens in 2004 Liu and Lei met in the final with Liu the victor.

In Men's Individual Class 1, none of the Athens medalists has reached the penultimate stage. Cho Jae-kwan of the Republic of Korea plays Jean-Francois Ducay of France in the first semifinal; in the second semifinal, Andreas Vevera of Austria, seeded No.1, confronts Lee Hae-kon of the Republic of Korea.

At the semifinal stage of Men's Individual Class 2, Stephane Molliens of France plays Lars Hansen of Denmark, while in the counterpart duel it is France's Vincent Boury versus the Republic of Korea's Kim Kyung-mook. In Athens, Kim was the bronze medalist.

In Men's Individual Class 3, Luiz Algacir Silva of Brazil plays Feng Panfeng of China, and Tomas Pinas of Spain meets Jean-Philippe Robin of France, the Athens silver medalist.

In Men's Individual Class 4/5, Tommy Urhaug of Norway, seeded No.1, plays Christophe Durandof France, the Athens bronze medalist; Sameh Saleh of Egypt confronts Jung Eun-chang of the republic of Korea, the Athens silver medalist.

In Men's Individual Class 6, Daniel Arnold of Germany, seeded No. 1 and the Athens gold medalist, meets Nico Blok of the Netherlands. Rainer Schmidt of Germany, the man Arnold beat in the final at the 2004 Paralympic Games, plays Peter Rosenmeier of Denmark, the No.2 seed.

In Men's Individual Class 7, Jochen Wollmert of Germany, seeded No.1 and the silver medalist in Athens, plays Alvaro Valera of Spain at the penultimate stage. In the corresponding contest it is Mitchell Seidenfeld of the United States in opposition to Ye Chaoqun of China, the No.2 seed.

In the semifinals of Men's Individual Class 8, Li Manzhou of China opposes Chen Gang of China with Miroslav Jambor of Slovakia playing Piotr Grudzien of Poland. None of the Athens medalists progressed to the penultimate round.

In Men's Individual Classes 9-10, Fredrik Andersson of Sweden, the Athens Men's Individual Class 10 silver medalist, meets Ma Lin of China and Ge Yang of China, the Athens Class 10 bronze medalist, plays Gerben Last of Netherlands.