 Phelps fires ahead on track-8
By Yang Xinwei (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-16 07:59
Just two more gold medals and Michael Phelps will be relieved of the burden of history, for history would then be his. The beyond-adjectives US swimmer picked up his sixth gold, in 200-m men's individual medley, in Beijing yesterday, equaling his Athens record and taking his total Games' tally to 12, itself a record. He can emulate Mark Spitz's seven-gold record at a single Games today, and go beyond it tomorrow. And then he can sleep on his laurels for the rest of his life. He truly is the "the icon of the Games", said International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge. Any doubts? At his first official appearance at the Games competition, President Hu Jintao watched the women's volleyball match between China and the US, which the hosts lost. The Bird's Nest saw a capacity crowd of 90,000 on the first day of track and field events yesterday. Poland's Tomasz Majewski throw the shot put 21.51 m to win the men's gold. Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba clocked an Olympic record of 29:54.68 to win the gold in the women's 10,000m race. Britain beat France for gold in the men's cycling team sprint, avenging three straight losses to their top rivals at the world championships. Germany, the defending Olympic champion, nipped Australia by 0.008 seconds for the bronze medal. For the hosts, Cao Lei won the seventh weightlifting gold. She snatched 128kg and lifted 154kg for the clean and jerk, grabbing the gold in the 75kg with a total lift of 282kg. Cao later said her thoughts were with her recently deceased mother, to whom she dedicated her win. Lu Yong won the men's 85kg weightlifting gold, helping China make a clean sweep of the golds in the four categories that it entered.
On the mat, China's Tong Wen defeated defending champion Maki Tsukada of Japan in the women's heavyweight judo final. Tong ipponed Tsukada with only eight seconds left, when she was still behind in score. Women's all-round gymnastics saw Nastia Liukin edge out US teammate Shawn Johnson for the gold. Liukin finished with 63.325 points, a mere six-tenths ahead of Johnson, the reigning world champion. Johnson had beaten Liukin at the US championships and Olympic trials only weeks ago. Yang Yilin of China picked up the bronze. The Games had its negative side, too, with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's double-medallist Kim Jong-su testing positive for a banned substance. The IOC stripped him of his medals and expelled him from the Games. Kim had won the men's 50m pistol silver and the 10m air-pistol shooting bronze. A woman gymnast from Vietnam, who finished medal-less, also tested positive for a banned substance, an IOC spokeswoman said. China continued its gold rush in badminton, too. Yu Yang and Du Jing beat Republic of Korea's (ROK) Lee Kyung-won and Lee Hyon-jung 21-15, 21-13 to win the women's doubles final. China is guaranteed a 1-2 finish in the women's singles after its last challenger, Indonesia's Maria Kristin Yulianti, lost in the semifinals. World No 1 Xie Xingfang will take on defending Olympic champion Zhang Ning in Saturday's clash of the titans as China looks forward to a clean sweep of badminton golds. But Chinese women lost to the US in volleyball to the disappointment of Chinese spectators, among whom was President Hu Jintao. The US team incidentally is coached by former Chinese spiker Lang Ping. Playing its first baseball game at the Olympics, The Chinese mainland beat old hand Chinese Taipei 8-7 in a game that went into extra innings and stopped work in Taiwan as fans watched it live on TV. The game had created such a hype that Chinese Taipei's baseball chief had offered to resign if his team lost. Back in the Water Cube, Rebecca Soni of the US set a world record in the 200m breaststroke, beating former world-record holder Leisel Jones of Australia. Ryan Lochte of the US set another world record winning the men's 200m backstroke, pushing compatriot Aaron Peirsol to second spot. Britta Steffen of Germany won the women's 100m freestyle, edging out Libby Trickett of Australia by four-hundredths of a second. In canoeing, Slovak twins Peter and Pavol Hochschorner won a record third straight gold in the men's whitewater canoe pairs. Slovakia collected three of the four possible whitewater golds as Elena Kaliska took the women's kayak title after Michal Martikan had won the men's singles canoe gold on Thursday. In archery, Ukraine's Viktor Ruban won the gold in the men's individual event, beating world No 3 Park Kyung-mo of ROK by a single point. Agencies contributed to the story (China Daily 08/16/2008 page1) |
