Zhang shines over Audina with badminton gold
Zhang shines over Audina with badminton gold
Agencies Athens
Zhang Ning helped China shake off its badminton blues on Thursday, beating Indonesian-born Mia Audina of the Netherlands to take her country's first gold medal in the Olympic tournament.
"We needed a gold in badminton today," Zhang said after a gripping 8-11 11-6 11-7 match.
"I hope my gold will motivate the rest of my teammates to do well in mixed doubles and women's doubles," she told a news conference.
The Chinese were expected to dominate badminton, but men's top seed and world number one Lin Dan was eliminated in the first round and woman's top seed Gong Ruina was thrashed by Audina in the quarterfinals. China's Zhou Mi took the bronze medal.
Audina, who won a silver for Indonesia at the Atlanta Olympics before marrying a Dutch gospel singer and moving to Europe, said it was "quite special" to win medals for two countries.
Indonesia's hopes for a gold medal in the men's doubles were shattered after Flandy Limpele and Eng Hian lost 15-8, 15-2 to South Korean pair Kim Dong-moon and Ha Tae-kwon in the semifinals, putting them in the bronze medal match.
However, Indonesia's hunt for gold is still alive in the men's singles with Taufik Hidayat and Sony Dwi Kuncoro playing against their respective opponents in the semifinals on Friday.
China stayed at the top of the medals table on Thursday, with 11 golds, seven silvers and four bronzes. But the Americans were stalking China with 10 golds, 10 silvers and nine bronzes and were poised to strike more gold in athletics.
In one of the bigger surprises at Athens, the Japanese were in third place, with eight golds, three silvers and a bronze.
Japan's best performance in decades has been powered by judoka and by double gold medalist breaststroke swimmer Kosuke Kitajima in the pool.
But in a major blow to his adoring fans, Japan's Kosei Inoue was beaten for the first time ever in international competition when he crashed out of the quarterfinals of the under-100kg competition judo competition.
The Olympic and triple world champion, widely recognized as one of the best competitors ever, was beaten by ippon by Elco van der Geest of the Netherlands.
Doping cast its sleazy shadow over the Olympics again when it was announced that five weightlifters had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
In the early morning sunshine, Italy had little to celebrate at the Olympic rowing regatta.
The Olympic champion men's quadruple sculls and the world champion lightweight men's doubles teams both failed to make the finals.
In other sport, Russian pin-up girl Svetlana Khorkina will bid farewell to the Olympics with one last attempt at the all-around gold medal that has so far eluded her.
The 25-year-old Russian diva, the reigning world champion, could become the first non-teen since 1968 to capture the Olympic all-around crown.