China's gold rush set to slow: Official

The country's haul of gold medals will slow down as the Beijing Games hits its halfway point and Chinese athletes are expected to lose their advantage in certain sports, a senior sports official said yesterday.

Chinese athletes do not have the edge over competitors for coming events including track and field, wrestling, boxing and various team sports, said the deputy head of the Chinese delegation, Cui Dalin.

"A great number of events that China is strong in were scheduled in the first half of the Games, so we temporarily took the lead in gold medals," Cui said.