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China's golden charge resumes with weightlifting, badminton
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Veteran Zhang Ning's "miracle" victory in the badminton and a triple world
record breaking performance by Liu Chunhong in the weightlifing reignited
China's golden charge at the Olympics.
Reigning world champion Zhang dropped the first set
against Dutch fourth seed Mia Audina in the women's singles final but fought
back to win 8-11, 11-6, 11-7 to claim China's 12th gold medal of the Athens
Olympics.
"It's a miracle to win at the age of 29," said Zhang, who
threw her racquet on to the floor after her winning smash and ran over to cry in
the arms of her coach.
China's Zhang Jun and Gao Ling won another gold
on Thursday evening in the mixed doubles final, defeating British fourth seeds
Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms 15-1, 12-15, 15-12 in the final.
In the
weightlifting, Liu smashed the world records in the snatch, clean and jerk, and
overall to win the women's 69kg competition ahead of Hungary's Eszter Krutzler
and Russian Zarema Kasaeva.
Liu set her first world record by hoisting
122.5kg in the snatch, bettering her own world best of 120kg set in Vancouver at
last year's world championships.
She then hoisted 153kg in the clean and
jerk, again beating her old record of 152.5kg set in April this year. The two
lifts gave Liu a recorded total of 275kg, breaking her own overall record of
270kg.
Liu's gold was China's fourth of the weightlifting competition,
and followed world champion Zhang Guozheng courageously defying the pain barrier
after injuring his back to win the men's 69kg division on Wednesday evening.
"I did feel some pain in my back during the competition but I could not
give up," said Zhang, who won with a total of 347.5kg, said.
"I won
because of determination and endurance. Athletes can endure bitterness and pain
five times more than others."
China has won 14 golds in in the first six
full days of comeptition, maintaining the nation's position on top of the
overall Olympic medal tally.
China will be looking to its table tennis
team to bring home up to four more gold medals in a clean sweep of the ping pong
tournament, and the Chinese campaign is still on track.
Second seeds
Wang Nan and Zhang Yining secured a berth in Friday's women's doubles final
after beating top-seeded team mates Niu Jianfeng and Guo Yue 4-2 in an
anti-climactic semi-final.
Despite being the top two seeds, the Chinese
pairs were placed in the same half of the draw after a rule change introduced
for this Olympics to stop teams from one nation playing off in the final in both
men's and women's events.
With China going silver-gold in the women's
doubles at the past three Olympics, the International Table Tennis Federation
said it changed the format to make the finals more interesting.
Wang and
Zhang will meet South Korean third seeds Lee Eun Sil and Seok Eun in the
final.
In the men's doubles, top seeds Ma Lin and Chen Qi moved
into the semi-finals after accounting for Poland's Lucjan Blaszczyk and Tomasz
Krzeszewski 4-2.
In the singles, top seed Wang Liqin and fourth seed
Wang Hao will play their quarter final matches on Friday.
In the women's event, top seed Zhang
Yining moved into the semi-finals with a win over Croation Tamara Boros.
Reigning Olympic champion Wang Nan will play her quarter-final match later
Thursday.
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(Editor:Caroline) (From:Agencies)
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