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China Olympic breakthroughs keep coming
2008-08-21
BEIJING (AFP) - One thing China will take away from their home Olympics will be the series of breakthroughs in sports that previously eluded them and beach volleyball was added to that burgeoning list Thursday. The hosts have pulled out all the stops to top the medal table but what has been notable is that they have shone in non-traditional disciplines like archery, fencing, windsurfing, and women's hockey. In torrential rain, bikini-clad beach volleyballers Wang Jie and Tian Jia wrote their names into the annals of Chinese sporting history. The duo claimed silver after losing 21-18, 21-18 to dominant American defending champions Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor, who won their 108th consecutive game. Chen Xue and Zhang Xi added to the buzz by winning the bronze medal play-off 21-19, 21-17 over Brazil's Renata Ribeiro and Talita Rocha. The country's previous best Olympic finish was ninth in Athens "I'm excited to win the silver medal. I'm proud to present such a wonderful match in front of the large audience," said Wang. "I hope beach volleyball will have a faster development in China through our success at the Beijing Games." More gold came their way off the diving board, where Chen Ruolin won the women's 10m platform, making it seven-out-of-seven golds so far in their quest for a clean sweep of all eight. Chen, just 15 years old, produced a spectacular dive worth 100.30 points on her final effort to edge past Emilie Heymans of Canada. Chen's teammate Wang Xin was third. The 10m platform has always been China's weakest point with American diver Laura Wilkinson beating China's Li Na in Sydney and Australian Chantelle Newbery stunning favourite Lao Lishi in Athens. The home nation now has 46 gold to the United States' 28 and with the Americans suffering a dismal track and field meet they have virtually conceded Olympic Games supremacy to China. International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said China doing well was no surprise, but he had not expected them to be running neck and neck with the United States for total number of medals won. Currently, the US have a total of 93 medals and China 83. "I am not surprised as I always said that China would do well here," Rogge told AFP. "I thought the USA would have the edge in terms of the total number of medals won but based on golds only I could see China doing well." He added that he hoped that the tremendous success the Chinese were enjoying would be a lasting legacy for their youth. "This success will last as long as the sporting system lasts here," he said. Meanwhile, China's women's hockey coach Kim Chang Back was still revelling in his team making the Olympic final for the first time, where they will meet the Netherlands on Friday. "To be in the final re-writes Chinese hockey history," he said. "It is good to be in the final. No Asian team (women's) has ever won gold in the Olympics. On Friday, we will change the world history of hockey. On the downside, China had to face up to not having Liu Xiang in the final of the 110m hurdles following his shock withdrawl due to a foot injury. Cuba's world record holder Dayron Robles easily won the race in 12.93 seconds, but received only a lukewarm reception from the patriotic crowd.
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