ATHENS: Wang Nan and Zhang Yining of China converted the second of five match points on Friday to overpower the South Korean pair of Seok Eun-mi and Lee Eun-sil 4-0 (11-9, 11-7, 11-6, 11-6) and retained their Olympic table tennis women's doubles title.

Top-seeded favourites Guo Yue and Niu Jianfeng of China earlier struggled to defeat ninth-seeded Kim Kyung-ah and Kim Bok-rae of South Korea 4-3 (11-7, 5-11, 11-4, 11-9, 7-11, 9-11, 11-9) in a dramatic 4-3 bronze medal match.

Gold medallists in Sydney and current world champions from Doha this year, Wang and Zhang met little resistance from the South Koreans.

"Today we were outstanding in our performance," Zhang said. "Coming to the Olympics, we did a lot of detailed and hard work preparing both technically and mentally because we were for this victory."

The doubles gold medal came as a consolation of sorts for Wang, who was knocked out 4-1 in the singles quarterfinals by Li Jia Wei of Singapore the previous day, putting an end to her bid to defend her title from four years ago in Sydney.

China was assured of its third Olympic gold medal in badminton as two of the country's teams reached the women's doubles final here on Friday.

Top seeds Zhang Jiewen and Yang Wei defeated South Korean third seeds Ra Kyung-min and Lee Kyung-won, while No 2 seeds Huang Sui and Gao Ling, the reigning world champions, beat compatriots Zhao Tingting and Wei Yili.

The all-Chinese final will take place on Saturday.

The Chinese women's archery team only managed to secure silver, beaten by a deciding arrow by South Korea, losing 240-241 in the team final.

In a 27-arrow shootout, South Korean individual gold medallist Park Sung-hyun clinched the title with the last arrow by hitting a bullseye which secured the maximum 10-point score.

Woman cyclist Jiang Yonghua lost to Australian cyclist Anna Meares in the Olympic 500-metre time trial, despite achieving a personal best.

Meares clocked 33.952 seconds, becoming the first woman under 34 seconds.

Jiang, who had set the previous world record of 34 seconds, took the silver medal in 34.112 seconds.

(China Daily 08/21/2004 page1)