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| China's Gao Ling and Zhang Jun (L)
celebrate victory in their mixed doubles badminton gold medal game
against Britain's Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms at the Athens 2004
Olympic Games, August 19, 2004.
(Agencies) |
China won the first two gold medals in the Olympic badminton tournament
on Thursday, with world champion Zhang Ning beating Indonesian-born
Dutchwoman Mia Audina 8-11, 11-6, 11-7 in the singles final.
Zhang Jun and Gao Ling edged the British pair of Nathan Robertson and
Gail Emms 15-1, 12-15, 15-12 in a thrilling final.
The bronze medal in the mixed doubles went to Jens Eriksen and Mette
Schjoldager who beat compatriots Jonas Rasmussen and Rikke Olsen 15-5,
15-5. China also won bronze in the singles, with Zhou Mi defeating fellow
Chinese Gong Ruina 11-2, 8-11, 11-6.
Mia, the former Indonesian prodigy who crushed top seed Gong Ruina in
the semi-final, regained her best form in the first set, pressing Zhang
Ning to make consecutive errors in the first set, and won it 11-8.
Zhang Ning, however, didn't become distressed, recollected her resolve
and fought back, finishing the second set 11-6. In the third set, Mia,
annoyed by two judgements of linemen and a yellow card from the
umpire, started to make
errors, handing over the gold to Zhang.
 Lifting record
Chinese superwoman Liu Chunhong broke world records to win the women's
69 kg weightlifting gold medal on Thursday.
The 19-year-old underlined her credentials as the sport's brightest
young talent by crushing the competition with world record lifts of 122.5
kg in the snatch and 153 kg in the clean and
jerk for a world record total of 275 kg, giving China its
fourth weightlifting gold.
(China Daily) |
Updated: 2004-08-20 09:00