China maintains 12-gold medal lead
Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from China
The host’s bid for the top spot of the medals standings of the XX1Xth
Olympic Games continued as China retained its 12-gold medal lead on day
eight of the summer Games here on Friday.
Incidentally both China and second-placed USA accounted for four gold
medals each in today’s events, making it the contest for the top slot
becoming even more exciting.
China had 22 golds while USA had 10 gold medals on day seven
yesterday.
However, both teams won four gold medals each in today’s events as
China maintained its grip over the USA, which led the finals medals
standings of the Athens 2004 Games.
In the latest medals standings, China retains the top place with 26
gold medals, nine silver and six bronze medals. The USA is placed second
with 14 gold medals, 13 silver and 19 bronze medals. Germany displaced
South Korea from the third place with eight gold, two silver and four
bronze medals.
South Korea is placed fourth with six gold, nine silver and three
bronze medals, followed by Italy, Japan, Australia and Russia.
But the American dominance was once again evident at the Water Cube
with Michael Phelps winning his sixth medal at Beijing Games. More
importantly, he has won all six gold medals with new world records, a
feat that would be hard to beat here. Americans Rebecca Soni Ryan Lochte
and Phelps all set world records as USA accounted for their record 20th
swimming world record here.
The current Beijing Games is only the third Olympic Games in history
to produce at least 20 world records in the swimming competition after
Munich 1972 (28 new world marks) and Montreal 1976 (26) Olympiads.
German Britta Steffen won a surprise gold in the women’s 100m
freestyle final. Steffen and the rest of the field were led out by
Australian Lisbeth Trickett who was 0.22 seconds under world record pace
at the 50m mark.
She turned first, but Steffan was soon matching the Australian stroke
for stroke. The German surged in the final few meters to touch the
Australian out in the lunge for the line, winning in an Olympic record
of 53.12, a mere 0.04 seconds in front of Trickett. Settling for the
bronze was the resilient Natalie Coughlin who took the bronze medal in a
time of 53.39.
The Australian team of Emily Seebohm, Tarnee White, Felicity Galvez
and Shayne Reese led the field in the women’s 4 x 100m medley relay
prelims, clocking a time of 3:57.94. The finish was just 0.62 seconds
slower than the Olympic record swam by the Australians in the 2004
Athens Games.
Athletic proper begins
The much looked forward to track and field competition of the Beijing
Olympics got underway at the Birds Nest with the cream of world
sprinters warming up in the qualifying rounds.
Jamaican Usain Bolt clocked the fastest time in the second round of
the men’s 100m - 9.92 seconds, which put him ahead of Churandy Martina
of Netherlands Antilles and Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago, who
now go into Saturday night’s semi finals ranked equal second, with both
athletes recording identical timing of 9.99 seconds.
The first athletic gold medal of the Beijing Olympic Games was won by
Tomasz Majewski who cleared a personal best of 21.51m in men’s putt shot
final.
American Christian Cantwell had to be satisfied with the silver medal
with an unimpressive performance of 21.09m
Winning the second athletic gold close to the midnight on Friday was
Ethiopian Tirunesh Debaba who clocked 29 minutes and 54.66 seconds to
establish a new Olympic record. It looked like Debabba had reserve
energy and endurance to accelerate the final lap in style. Elvan
Abeylegesse of Turkey (29 mts, 56.34 sec) won the silver.
In badminton, bottom seeded Du Jing and Yu Yang of China prevailed
over fourth seeds Lee Hyo-jung and Lee Kyung-won of the Republic of
Korea 21-15, 21-13 to clinch the women’s doubles gold.
BEIJING, Friday |
