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China wins 4 golds at Athens Olympics
China grabbed four gold medals of the Olympic Games on Saturday after Tian Liang and Yan Jinghui won men's synchronised 10m platform finals. Britain's Leon Taylor/Peter Waterfield won the silver with 371.52 and Australia's Mathew Helm/Robert Newberry got the bronze with 366.84.
Earlier, Guo Jinging and Wu Minxia won the women's synchronised 3m springboard finals. Yulia Pakhalina and Vera Ilyina of Russia took the silver and Australians Irina Lashko and Chantelle Newbery the bronze of the women's synchronised 3m springboard. The world champions led from the opening dive to chalk up 336.9 points and finish comfortably clear of defending champions and great rivals Yulia Pakhalina and Vera Ilyina of Russia. The Russians, also beaten into silver by Guo and Wu in the last two world championships, were 6.06 points behind on 330.84 with Australians Irina Lashko and Chantelle Newbery taking bronze with 309.30. Guo and Wu lived up to their favourites' billing by producing a series of superb dives, opening a virtually unbeatable lead after four rounds.
But it was still not enough to haul in Guo and Wu. "We were confident all along because we had faith in our ability," said Guo. "As a Chinese person it is a great honour to win for my country and I will do all I can to be able to take part in the 2008 Games (hosted by Beijing)." Their performance took China to the top of the medals table with three golds, having won the first two events of the day in shooting. They were also in with a chance of making it four in the day's last event, the men's synchronised 10 metre platform diving, where Tian Liang and Yang Jingjui were among the favourites. Also on Saturday, Wang Yifu rallied to defeat Russia's Mikhail Nestruev on the final shot in the men's 10-metre air pistol competition.
Before Wang, Du Li had won the first gold medal of the Olympics with a remarkably similar triumph in the women's 10-metre air rifle event, coming from behind to knock another Russian, Lioubov Galkina, into second place. China's perfect two-for-two start on the first day of the shooting competition underscored the confident predictions of Chinese officials, who had said their team should win up to 10 medals in the 17 shooting events. Wang, 43, had trailed throughout the 10-shot pistol finals but outscored his Russian rival, who was standing just to his left, on their crucial last shot to win with a total of 690.0 points to Nestruev's 689.8. Nestruev, the European champion who had set an Olympic record of 591 points in the qualifying round earlier on Saturday, took the silver medal while his compatriot Vladimir Isakov outduelled Bulgaria's Tanyu Kiriakov for the bronze.
Sydney gold medallist Franck Dumoulin of France did not even reach the eight-man finals, stumbling in the qualifications into a disappointing three-way tie for 20th place, 14 points behind the 35-year-old Nestruev. Wang, who won the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics and finished second both in 1996 and 2000, appeared to be heading for another silver medal through the final round as Nestruev hit the bullseye on five of his first eight shots. Nestruev was still leading by a full point after the eighth round before Wang outpointed him by 10.3 to 9.3 on the penultimate shot to even the score at 680.1 and send a roar through the indoor arena. Maintaining his poker face, Nestruev shot first in the final round and scored 9.7 while Wang, breathing heavily, first put his pistol back down for a moment. He then looked up, aimed and scored a 9.9 to beat Nestruev. |
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