US catches with up China gold haul
(08-03 08:55)
China were caught by the United States at the top of the London Olympics medals table on a day of mixed fortunes for the ex-hosts yesterday.
Zhang Jike's men's table tennis win was the only success for China as the five-day leaders were matched on 18 gold medals by the American team, who totted up six new titles. China briefly celebrated their first ever cycling gold – before they were cruelly relegated to silver for an infringement in the women's team sprint final.
In brighter news, top seed Zhang beat team-mate Wang Hao 4-1 to maintain China's grip on the table tennis competition. The women's final was also an all-Chinese affair. “I'm very excited, it's my first time at the Olympics and it has been my dream to win the gold medal since I started playing,'' said Zhang, 24, who completed a career grand slam of the Olympic, world and World Cup titles.
Leander Paes and Sania Mirza kept India's tennis hopes alive with a victory in the mixed doubles. But Japan's Kei Nishikori went crashing out of the men's singles at the hands of Juan Martin del Potro.
In the Olympic Park Velodrome, Guo Shuang and Gong Jinjie dominated the women's sprint with two new world records, and then appeared to have won the final against Germany. But the Chinese pair were demoted to silver after judges spotted an illegal changeover.
At Wembley Arena, China's defending badminton champion Lin Dan had to dig deep to see off Sho Sasaki, and Malaysian top seed Lee Chong Wei also reached the semi-finals as he continues his recovery from serious injury.
Lin will next face South Korea's Lee Hyun-Il and top seed Lee will play China's Chen Long, who ended the campaign of soon-to-retire Danish veteran Peter Gade.
In the women's competition, Saina Nehwal became the first Indian player to reach the Olympic semi-finals, where she will face world champion Wang Yihan.
Ki Bo Bae added women's individual archery gold to her team title but there was bad news for Chinese basketball fans when NBA star Yi Jianlian suffered a knee injury in their 81-61 loss to Australia.
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