French swimmer Alain Bernard (Photo credit: Getty)
(BEIJING, August 14) -- Shocks, surprises and inspirational performances were the order of the day on a rain-soaked day six of Beijing 2008, which caused postponement of many outdoor sports.
The entire days' Sailing competition was cancelled and most of the Games' Baseball competition, while the finals of the Men's Slalom Canoe Doubles (C2) and Women's Slalom Kayak Singles (K1) have been held over until tomorrow (Friday, August 15).
Play was also suspended for most of the day in the Beijing 2008 Tennis tournament -- but not long enough to prevent arguably the shock of the entire Games so far as James Blake of the United States defeated World No. 1 Roger Federer 6-4, 7-6 in the Men's Singles quarterfinals to leave the Swiss player, despite his dominance of men's tennis over recent years, without a medal from three Olympics Games.
At the end of day six hosts China stand proudly aloft the Beijing 2008 medal stable with 22 gold medals and 35 in total…and not just because of big name favorites in traditionally strong sports.
With no Diving or Weightlifting medals at stake, for example – sports in which China has been dominant at the Games -- it was a day for the host country's underdogs to growl.
No doubt about performance of the day. There was no sign of Gene Kelly at the Olympic Green Archery Field, but Chinese fans were left singing and dancing in the rain as, against all odds, China's Zhang Juanjuan out-fired World No. 1, Park Sung-hyun of the all conquering Republic of Korea (ROK) archery team, to win an enthralling Women's Individual final. It was a major upset, as 27th seed Zhang edged past top-seeded Park with the final shot of the match to become the first non-Republic of Korea Olympic gold medalist in the event since 1980.
Zhang also defeated World No. 2 Yun Ok-hee (ROK), who took third, in an equally exciting semifinal clash. Yun defeated Kwon Un-sil of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the bronze medal match.
Less of a surprise was China's Yang Wei winning the Men's Individual All-Around Artistic Gymnastics final with a total of 94.575 points, well ahead Uchimura Kohei of Japan, who scored a total of 91.975. The bronze medal went to Frenchman Benoit Caranobe.
Yang Wei competes in the Parallel Bars. (Photo Credit: Nick Laham/Getty Images)
There was host joy in Judo, too. Yang Xiuli won gold in the Women's -78kg by defeating Cuba's Yalennis Castillo with a hantei after overtime failed to decide a winner.
Tuvshinbayar Naidan from Mongolia claimed the Men's 100kg class, beating Askhat Zhitkeyev from Kazakhstan in the final. Bronze medals went to Movlud Miraliyev from Azerbaijan and Henk Grol from the Netherlands.
China also prospered in Shooting, with Du Li winning gold in the Women's 50m Rifle Three Positions with a new Olympic record score of 690.3 points. Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic became a Games' double medalist by following her opening-day gold in the Women's 10m Air Rifle with a silver medal. Cuba's Eglis Yaima Cruz won the bronze medal.
Chiara Cainero of Italy won the gold medal in Women's Skeet after a shoot-off with Kimberly Rhode of the United States and Germany's Christine Brinker, after all three shooters had tied on 93 hits after the completion of the final. Brinker and Rhode missed their second shoot-off target, so the gold medal went to Cainero, who successfully hit both targets.
With no Michael Phelps finals we all thought this might be a boring day in the pool, right? Wrong!!!
Two more world records and an Olympic best were shattered – with one of them going to China's Liu Zige, who lowered the Women's 200m Butterfly mark by 1.22 seconds to set a new best of 2:04.18. It was double celebration time for the home crowd as Jiao Liuyang finished behind her teammate to take the silver medal. Former world record holder Jessicah Schipper led early on but finished third.
The other world record came in the Women's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay final, as Australia sprang one of the upsets of the week by winning gold in a time of 7min 44.31sec. The team comprised of double Individual Medley gold medalist Stephanie Rice, and Bronte Barratt, Kylie Palmer and Linda Mackenzie, sliced a whopping 5.78 off the previous best time.
China claimed silver in an Asian record time of 7:45.93 and previous world record-holders the United States took bronze ahead of fourth-placed Italy. All of the first four teams beat the old world record of 7:50.09.
Yesterday we billed the Men's 100m Breaststroke final as a showdown between Frenchman Alain Bernard and Eamon Sullivan of Australia – and the boys didn't let us down. Frenchman Bernard won, coming from behind at the turn after Aussie Sullivan led. Surprisingly, the world record stayed intact despite the pair lowering it in the heats. Thirty-two-year-old Jason Lezak of the United States, who struck gold in the Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay, won bronze.
Spare a thought then for poor old world and defending Olympic champion Kitajima Kosuke of Japan, who grabbed his second gold of the Games in the Men's 200m Breaststroke – but, alas, not the headlines.
The Men's 100m Breaststroke champion swam an Olympic record 2:07.64, with Australia's Brenton Rickard touching for the silver medal and Hugues Duboscq of France claiming his second bronze of the Games, in third.
If China dominated most medals, Europeans did the same in the day's three Wrestling finals, capturing 11 of 12 medals at stake.
Italy's Andrea Minguzzi beat Zoltan Fodor of Hungary to claim gold in the Men's Greco-Roman 84 kilogram category. Aslanbek Khushtov of Russia took gold, beating Mirko Englich in the Men's Greco-Roman 96kg class, while Cuba's Mijain Lopez beat Russia's Khasan Baroev to win the Men's Greco-Roman 120kg gold medal.
Italian wrestler Andrea Minguzzi (Photo credit: Getty)
Ukraine won gold in the inaugural Women's Team Sabre event defeating China 45-44 with pre-tournament favorites the United States taking bronze.
Indoors, Badminton Men's Singles World No. 1 Lin Dan comfortably beat World No. 9 Peter Hoeeg Gade of Denmark in the quarterfinals. There were also wins for his compatriot Chen Jin, World No. 2 Lee Chong-wei of Malaysia and World No. 10 Lee Hyun-il of the Republic of Korea, who defeated No. 3 seed Bao Chunlai of China.
Zhang Juanjuan shoots in the match. (Photo credit: Xinhua)
In Basketball, Team USA stand on top of group B with three straight wins after breezing past Greece 92-69. World champion Spain share the same points after defeating Germany 72-59, and China bounced back from losing its opening two games by beating Angola 85-68 to claim its first tournament victory.
Lithuania defeated Russia a tight 86-79 encounter to top group A with three wins from three games, Australia dominated Iran 106-68 to register their first win and Argentina cruised past previously unbeaten Croatia.
However, the Croats are the only unbeaten team in the Men's Water Polo competition, winning all three of their games so far after beating Germany 13-5. Hungary, who beat Spain 8-5, and Montenegro, victors over Greece 10-6, remain unbeaten after a draw on day one. Serbia beat the United States 4-2 in the lowest-scoring game in Men's Olympic Water Polo since 1980.
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