Golden day as China tops medal tally

With breakthroughs achieved in the water and on the track and four more gold medals for swimming, trampoline, badminton and table tennis, Chinese athletes have maintained their strong momentum at the Tokyo Olympics as the medal-tally leader with 19 golds, 10 silvers and 11 bronzes as the Games approached the halfway mark on Friday.

At Tokyo Bay's Sea Forest Waterway, Chinese rowers won a bronze medal in women's eight on Friday, taking Team China's medal haul in the sport to three after an earlier bronze in men's double sculls and a gold in women's quadruple sculls on Wednesday.

Although Jiang Yan only settled for sixth place in the women's single sculls final, Steve Redgrave, the five-time Olympic rowing champion and high-level performance director for China's national rowing team, hailed the team's overall performance and believed China's rowers can become the best in the world.

"China has the athletes, has the resources and has some of the know-how to be the strongest rowing nation in the world," the British icon said, "And I was brought in to get them there."

He said the three medals won in rowing events will help build up Chinese rowers' confidence.

"That boosts their confidence so our team should go on from strength to strength," Redgrave said.

There were also surprises in the track and field events.

Ge Manqi became the first Chinese athlete in the history of the Olympic delegation to enter the Olympic women's 100-meter semifinals.

In Friday's competition, Ge was in the seventh lane of the first group, and made it ranking fourth in 11.20 seconds, only 0.16 seconds away from the group's first place finisher, Teahna Daniels of the United States.

The day's biggest highlight was in the men's 200m individual medley as Wang Shun clocked a personal best and an Asian record time of one minute and 55.00 seconds to win a rare gold for China in the event.

The gold was China's first in men's swimming at Tokyo, and also the first men's individual medley title for China at the Olympics. Wang became the second Chinese male swimmer to win gold in Olympic history.

"I think I really did a good job. I have given all I have," the 27-year-old said after the race, adding that China's success in swimming at Tokyo lay in unity.

"We have one single target and objective to achieve. Under such a structure, we have a lot of motivation to achieve this," Wang said.

The day's three other gold medals for China came easily as they took place in all-Chinese finals.

On the badminton court, second-seeded Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping beat world No 1 Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong 2-1 to take the mixed doubles title.

China also won gold and silver medals in the women's trampoline final, as Zhu Xueying finished first with 56.635 points, followed by Liu Lingling with 56.350.

"I put in a lot of effort to reach the podium. With Tokyo 2020 being postponed for a year, I had more time to get prepared and I focused on the things I wanted to improve. I am very happy with how I did," Zhu said after the final.

"I'm very, very excited. I am almost at a retiring stage, so this is a great milestone for me. I really focused on my competition here and I am glad it worked out," 26-year-old Liu said. "I have been working really hard for this since the age of six. Winning an Olympic medal has always been my dream and taking the silver is amazing. I am really proud of my performance."

China's 19th gold came in the men's table tennis singles on Friday night, with defending Olympic champion Ma Long beating his compatriot and world No 1 Fan Zhendong 4-2, thus becoming the first men's table tennis player to defend an Olympic singles gold in history.