/ 16 August 2004

China on top

China clung to its position atop the Olympic medal leader board on Monday after teenage marksman Zhu Qinan won the nation’s sixth gold medal, with the promise of more to come in the diving later in the day.

Zhu (19) set a new world record of 702,7 points in the men’s 10m air-rifle gold, outshining compatriot Li Jie for China’s third gold medal of the shooting competition.

China and Australia both had six golds midway through Monday’s third full day of Olympic competition, but the Chinese have won one more silver than their rivals from down under.

China can also look forward to more golden performances in the pool on Monday evening when 17-year-old world champions Lao Lishi and Li Ting compete in the women’s synchronised platform diving event.

While the wunderkinds are regarded as virtual certainties to take gold, compatriots Peng Bo and Wang Kenan might also retain China’s Olympic title in the men’s synchronised springboard diving.

Fine performance in badminton

In more good news for China as they look to maintain their status as the strongest Olympic team in the world behind the United States and Russia, their three top-seeded women’s shuttlers made it into the semifinals of the singles badminton.

In another ruthless display, world number one and top seed Gong Ruina dropped just six points in her defeating Taipei’s Cheng Shao-Chieh, and will now play Dutch fourth seed Mia Audina.

Reigning world champion and tournament second seed Zhang Ning also sealed a place in the last four, but not before Hong Kong fifth seed Wang Chen got to within two points of victory in the final set.

Chinese third seed Zhou Mi defeated unseeded Bulgarian Petya Nedelcheva for the final semifinal spot against Wang.

The women’s performance helped make up for the disappointment of Lin Dan, the world number one and top seed, losing to unseeded Singaporean Ronald Susilo in the first round of the men’s singles badminton on Sunday evening.

Lin, regarded as the game’s most exciting talent for years and a showman on court, lost 12-15, 10-15, to the Indonesian-born Singaporean.

Eye on table-tennis gold

China’s table-tennis champions were also preparing on Monday to launch their bid for a third consecutive clean sweep of Olympic gold, after enjoying byes in the early rounds courtesy of their top seedings.

Zhang Yining, Wang Nan and Niu Jianfeng are the top three seeds in the singles at Athens, while Wang Liqin and Ma Lin are the top two in the men’s draw. Rising star Wang Hao is the men’s fourth seed.

Niu and Guo Yue, the top seeds in the women’s doubles events, and the second-seeded duo of Zhang and Wan are due to play China’s first matches of the table-tennis tournament in Monday’s evening session.

China won all singles and doubles table-tennis golds at Atlanta and Sydney, and 13 out of 16 since the sport was introduced into the Olympics in 1988.

Four of China’s Olympic golds at Athens came on the first day of competition, beginning with one each to shooters Di Li and Wang Yifu.

Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia then claimed the women’s synchronised 3m springboard diving title, followed by Tian Liang and Yang Jinghui’s win in the men’s 10m synchronised platform event.

Xian Dongmei defeated Japan’s Yuki Yokosawa in the women’s 52kg judo competition on Sunday for China’s fifth gold. — Sapa-AFP