China wins 100th Summer Olympic gold as Zhang grabs singles title
The historic 100-gold mark was reached after the United States gave a timely helping hand when its shooter Matthew Emmons misfired the last shot to give the men's 50m rifle 3 positions gold to Chinese Jia Zhanbo. With these two titles, China is now head to head with the United States at the top of the gold tally, each with 20 golds. Jia's gold was China's 99th since the world's most populous nation ended its Olympic gold drought in 1984. Playing an aggressive and wide-angled topspin game, Zhang subdued Kim Kyung Ah in four straight sets (11-8, 11-7, 11-2, 11-2) in just 25 minutes, winning China's 16th table tennis title since Pingpong's Olympic debut in 1988. It was the second gold for Zhang, who had long been living under the shadow of the 2000 Olympic dual gold medalist Wang Nan. Zhang had combined with Wang to win the women's doubles on Saturday. "Really? I know nothing about that," said Zhang while she was told the 100th gold thing on her way to the athletes' change room. "When I shook hands with my opponent before the start of the match, I felt her hand was ice cold. So I think she must be extremely nervous and I feel more sure about the match," said Zhang while she was escorted to the change room to prepare for the awarding ceremony. She will appear again at a regular press conference for the medal winners shortly. After a tough beginning in the first two games, Zhang completely overwhelmed her tenacious opponent both technically and mentally as she took the last two games with an identical score of 11-2. Zhang jumped to an early lead 7-4 in the first game but only let the DPR Korean catch up to a 7-7 draw and overtook the lead 8-7. But Zhang showed no panic and took the next four points in a row to win 11-8. The second game found Zhang trailing 0-4 at first, but she started to strike back hard from 6-7 and took five points in a row to win 11-7. Scores for the four games were 11-8, 11-7, 11-2 and 11-2 as the match lasted just about 25 minutes. Zhang, who always appeared shy and timid, surprisingly threw several kisses at the spectators after her victory. Raising both arms highly with clenched fists, she even didn't notice her racket dropping onto the floor. With the singles title, Zhang has become another Olympic double champion with both singles and doubles gold medals in the star-studded Chinese table tennis team, like her predecessors Deng Yaping and Wang Nan did in Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000. The women's singles gold also made the all-mighty China just one step away from another clean sweep of all four table tennis titles in the Olympic tournament. China has bagged all eight table tennis golds at the previous two Olympic Games. It is up to Wang Hao, a young paddler now ranked 4th in the world, to accomplish China's ambitious goal in Athens, as he will take on South Korean paddler Ryu Seung Min in the men's singles final scheduled for Monday afternoon (Athens time).
With a shaky start in the final that cost him a two-point lead won in the qualification, the Chinese trailed American Emmons by three points going into the last shot. Then something rarely seen in shooting ranges happened. Emmons scored a "no-hit" in his last shot and fell to eighth while the Chinese posted a 10.1 points for a winning total of 1,264.5. "His shot hit other shooter's target," said Vassilis Delios, chief range officer. US coach David Johnson acknowledged the referee's ruling. "It rarely happened in international competition," said Johnson. American Michael Anti took silver on 1,263.1, while Christian Planer of Austria won bronze 1,262.8. Backgrounder: China's 100 Olympic gold medals Diving (17 golds) 1. Zhou Jihong, women's 10m platform, 1984 2. Xu Yanmei, women's 10m platform, 1988 3. Gao Min, women's 3m springboard, 1988 4. Gao Min, women's 3m springboard, 1992 5. Sun Shuwei, men's 10m platform, 1992 6. Fu Mingxia, women's 10m platform, 1992 7. Fu Mingxia, women's 10m platform, 1996 8. Fu Mingxia, women's 3m springboard, 1996 9. Xiong Ni, men's 3m springboard, 1996 10. Fu Mingxia, women's 3m springboard, 2000 11. Xiong Ni, men's 3m springboard, 2000 12. Tian Liang, men's 10m platform, 2000 13. Xiong Ni/Xiao Hailiang, men's 3m springboard synchronized, 2000 14. Li Na/Sang Xue, women's 10m platform synchronized, 2000 15. Tian Liang/Yang Jinghui, men's 10m platform synchronized, 2004 16. Guo Jingjing/Wu Minxia, women's 3m springboard synchronized, 2004 17. Lao Lishi/Li Ting, women's 10m platform, 2004 Table tennis (16) 1. Chen Jing, women's singles, 1988 2. Chen Longcan/Wei Qingguang, men's doubles, 1988 3. Lu Lin/Wang Tao, men's doubles, 1992 4. Deng Yaping/Qiao Hong, women's doubles, 1992 5. Deng Yaping, women's singles, 1992 6. Deng Yaping, women's singles, 1996 7. Deng Yaping/Qiao Hong, women's doubles, 1996 8. Kong Linghui/Liu Guoliang, men's doubles, 1996 9. Liu Guoliang, men's singles, 1996 10. Kong Linghui, men's singles, 2000 11. Wang Liqin/Yan Sen, men's doubles, 2000 12. Wang Nan, women's singles, 2000 13. Wang Nan/Li Ju, women's doubles, 2000 14. Wang Nan/Zhang Yining, women's doubles, 2004 15. Ma Lin/Chen Qi, men's doubles, 2004 16. Zhang Yining, women's singles, 2004 Weightlifting (16) 1. Zeng Guoqiqang, men's 52, 1984 2. Wu Shude, men's 56kg, 1984 3. Chen Weiqiang, men's 60kg, 1984 4. Yao Jingyuan, men's 67.5kg, 1984 5. Tang Lingsheng, men's 59, 1996 6. Zhan Xugang, men's 70kg, 1996 7. Zhan Xugang, men's 77kg, 2000 8. Yang Xia, women's 53kg, 2000 9. Chen Xiaomin, women's 63kg, 2000 10. Lin Weining, women's 69kg, 2000 11. Ding Meiyuan, women's 75kg, 2000 12. Shi Zhiyong, men's 62kg, 2004 13. Zhang Guozheng, men's 69kg, 2004 14. Chen Yanqing, women's 58kg, 2004 15. Liu Chunhong, women's 69kg, 2004 16. Tang Gonghong, women's 75kg, 2004 Shooting (14) 1. Xu Haifeng, men's free pistol, 1984 2. Li Yuwei, men's 50m running target, 1984 3. Wu Xiaoxuan, women's small-bore rifle, 1984 4. Wang Yifu, men's air pistol, 1992 5. Zhang Shan, skeet, 1992 6. Yang Ling, men's 10m running target, 1996 7. Li Duihong, women's 25m sport pistol, 1996 8. Yang Ling, men's 10m running target, 2000 9. Cai Yalin, men's 10m air rifle, 2000 10. Tao Luna, women's 10m air pistol, 2000 11. Du Li, women's air pistol, 2004 12. Wang Yifu, men's air pistol, 2004 13. Zhu Qinan, men's air rifle, 2004 14. Jia Zhanbo, men's 50m 3 positions rifle, 2004 Gymnastics (12) 1. Li Ning, men's floor, 1984 2. Li Ning, rings, 1984 3. Li Ning. pommel, 1984 4. Ma Yanghong, uneven bars, 1984 5. Lou Yun, vault, 1984 6. Lou Yun, vault, 1984 7. Lu Li, uneven bars, 1992 8. Li Xiaoshuang, floor, 1992 9. Li Xiaoshuang, all-around, 1996 10. China, men's team, 2000 11. Li Xiaopeng, parallel bars, 2000 12. Liu Xuan, beam, 2000 Badminton (8) 1. Ge Fei/Gu Jun, women's doubles, 1996 2. Ge Fei/Gu Jun, women's doubles, 2000 3. Zhang Jun/Gao Ling, mixed doubles, 2000 4. Ji Xinpeng, men's singles, 2000 5. Gong Zhichao, women's singles, 2000 6. Zhang Jun/Gao Ling, mixed doubles, 2004 7. Zhang Ning, women's singles, 2004 8. Zhang Jiewen/Yang Wei, women's doubles, 2004 Swimming (6) 1. Zhuang Yong, women's 100m freestyle, 1992 2. Qian Hong, women's 100m butterfly, 1992 3. Lin Li, Women's 200m individual medley, 1992 4. Yang Wenyi, women's 50m freestyle, 1992 5. Le Jingyi, women's 100m freestyle, 1996 6. Luo Xuejuan, women's 100m breaststroke, 2004 Judo (5) 1. Zhuang Xiaoyan, women's 72kg, 1992 2. Sun Fuming, women's 72kg, 1996 3. Tang Lin, women's 78kg, 2000 4. Yuan Hua, women's over-78kg, 2000 5. Xian Dongmei, women's 52kg, 2004 Athletics (3) 1. Chen Yueling, women's 10km walk, 1992 2. Wang Junxia, women's 5,000m, 1996 3. Wang Liping, women's 20km walk Fencing (1) 1. Luan Jujie, women's foil, 1984 Taekwondo (1) 1. Chen Zhong, women's over-67kg, 2000 Volleyball (1) 1. China, women, 1984 | ||||
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