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Day 15: China totals 31 after volleyball gold Zhang Yuehong's winner spike capped China's brilliant comeback in the women's volleyball final on Saturday, winning the country's first Olympic volleyball gold medal in 20 years. After narrowly losing the first two sets, the Chinese women held their nerves to beat the heavy-hitting Russians 28-30, 25-27,25-20, 25-23, 15-12 to repeat their predecessors' 1984 glory. With earlier two gold medals in canoeing and diving, China has made it 31 in gold total, three shy of the medal table front-runner the United States.
In a highly dramatic volleyball final, the Russians wasted a 2-1 lead and a 23-21 edge in the fourth set and helplessly watched the Chinese lead all the way in the deciding set to the title. After Zhang's winner smash on the Russian floor, the Chinese began crying and hugging on court side, while a stunned Russian team sat on the bench in tears. The loser in volleyball though, Russia turned out the biggest gold medal winner for the day, sweeping six events in athletics, boxing, rhythmic gymnastics and wrestling to make it 23 in total. In athletics, Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco and Britain's KellyHolmes completed golden doubles. The Moroccan repeated the feat of Paavo Nurmi in 1924 as he wonthe 5,000. Guerrouj beat world record holder Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia to win in 13 minutes 14.39 seconds. Bekele, winner of the men's 10,000m, took the silver in 13:14.59 and Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge got the bronze in 13:15.10.
Russian Yuriy Borzakovskiy stormed to the men's 800m crown in 1:44.45 and her compatriot Yelena Slesarenko cleared an Olympic record of 2.06 meters to win the women's high jump. The United States easily swept two relays in the women's 4x400m(3:19.01) and men's 4x400m (2:55.91) but lost 4x100m final to Britain which clocked 36.07 seconds. Andreas Thorkildsen claimed Norway's first athletics gold as hewon the men's javelin on his second throw of 86.50 meters. The penultimate day of the Olympics also saw Chinese Hu Jia crowned in the men's 10m platform diving with 748.08 points. Mathew Helm from Australia, first after the semifinal, grabbed the silver with 730.56 points, while pre-meet favorite Tian Liang of China finished with a bronze medal.
After breakthroughs in tennis (Li Ting/Sun Tiantian) and men's athletics (Liu Xiang), China claimed its first ever Olympic canoeing gold through Meng Guanliang and Yang Wenjun. Trained by Polish-born Marek Ploch, the Chinese pair clocked 1:40.278 to beat Cuba's Ibrahim Rojas Blanco/Ledis Frank Balceiro Pajon in photo finish. Germany raised its canoe/kayak title haul to four after taking the men's C1 500m and K2 500m finals as Hungary added the women's K1 500m and K2 500m golds on Saturday to its men's K4 1,000m. The men's K1 top honor went to Canada's Adam van Koeverden, the country's third gold. China's world champion Luo Wei outpointed Elisavet Mystakidou of Greece in a title clash of the women's 67kg taekwondo.
Luo led 2-1 after the first round but trailed 4-3 after the second. The two fighters fiercely exchanged kicks and Luo emerged the winner by 7-6. In the 80kg class final, world champion Steven Lopez of the United States met little challenge from Turkey's Bahri Tanrikulu, winning 3-0. Argentina struck a gold double in the most popular ball games in the world. The Argentines reached the top of Olympic men's soccer podium for the first time since 1952 as they nipped Paraguay on a lone goal by Carlos Tevez, the striker's eight in the tournament. The 20-year-old Boca Juniors forward shook off two Paraguayan defenders to a cross from Mauro Rosales to score in the 18th minute at the Olympic Stadium. Paraguay were two men short after Emilio Martinez was red-carded for elbowing Andres D'Alessandro in the face in the 67th minute and Diego Figueredo was expelled on a second yellow six minutes from the end. Italy won the bronze Friday night after a 1-0 victory to end Iraq's heroic run in Thessaloniki. Argentina also won the men's basketball, beating Italy 84-69 inthe final. The U.S. team of NBA players, who had lost three times in seven Olympic games - to Puerto Rico in the opener, to Lithuania in round-robin play and to Argentina in the semifinals, beat Europeanchampion Lithunia 104-96 in the bronze-medal playoff. In a sharp constrast, the U.S. women pulled up their slacks and beat Australia 74-63 in the women's basketball final after falling behind by four points in the second half. Russia downed Brazil 71-62 for the bronze. Russia was in a class of its own as it won the rhythmic gymnastics team event with a mesmerizing performance. The defending champion earned 51.100, an impressive 1.65 points ahead of second-placed Italy. Bulgaria came third on 48.600. Russia also won two gold medals (57kg, 75kg) from boxing, in which Cuba landed as many (51kg, 91kg) and Thailand took one (64kg). The world largest country nabbed a freestyle wrestling title (55kg). Uzbekistan took two (66kg, 120kg) with the United States picking one (84kg). France took the mountain bike cross country as Olympic rookie Julien Absalon clocked a winning time of 2:15:02. Austria lifted its second gold in Athens after the women's triathlon when Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher dominated the deciding race in the Tornado class sailing for their second straight Olympic title. Brazil triumphed in the Star class final, its third gold after the men's beach volleybal and Laser class sailing. |
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