China raises gold tally to 15
( 2001-08-26 10:18 ) (8 )

Ambitious Chinese came closer to their goal to topple the five-time overall leader United States in the World University Games by winning six more golds on Saturday to boost their gold haul to 15.

Xu Shan won China's first swimming gold as seven countries split as many titles at stake in the pool.

Xu touched home first in 1:09.45 in the women's 100m breaststroke final, beating second-placed teammate Zhang Yi by 0.71 seconds. Japanese Yuko Sakaguchi was third in 1:10.71.

"It is a pleasure to win the first gold for China. It is my career best, improving my previous result by 0.55 seconds," Xu said.

Dual world and Olympic champion Yana Klochkova pulled out of the 400 freestyle final to focus on the 200 individual medley, which she won in a meet record time of 2:14.13.

The 19-year-old Ukrainian, who already had the 800 freestyle gold to her credit, was almost a second ahead of runner-up Tomoko Hagiwara of Japan.

"I am satisfied with my results tonight. I have a cold and my throat is hurting. So I have to give up my 400m freestyle," Klochkova said.

Bethany Goodwin led Rachel Komisarz to an American 1-2 finish in the women's 50-meter butterfly final as she splashed home in 27.18 seconds.

World champion bronze medalist Camelia Potec of Romania clinched the 400 freestyle final in 4:11.41.

Mai Nakamura, who won a silver and a bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics, took the women's 100m backstroke in 1 Frenchman Barnier Romain grabbed the men's 100m freestyle gold in a time of 49.39 seconds, beating B. Kizierowski of Poland and Vyacheslav Shyrshov of Ukraine into second and third place.

The men's 4x100m freestyle relay title went to Britain, which clocked 3:20.18, 0.40 seconds faster than the United States and a further 0.13 over France.

Chinese remained unbeatable in their "national sport" of table tennis, winning both the men's and women's team top honors.

The Chinese women, led by newly crowned World Cup champion Zhang Yining, crushed their arch rivals South Koreans 3-1 in the final.

World top ranked Wang Liqin, world singles champion and Olympic doubles gold medalist, led China to a 3-0 victory in the men's final clash with Chinese Taipei.

Olympic gymnastics team champion Yang Wei won China's third gymnastics gold in the games as he garnered 57.250 points to take the six-event men's individual all-around event.

Japanese gymnasts Tsukahara Naoya and Tomita Hiroyuki shared the sliver with an identical score of 56.750 points.

Petite Lioudmila Ejova landed Russia's first gold by winning the women's all-around gymnastics title. Her teammate Ekaterina Privlova took the silver ahead of Chinese Bai Chunyue in third.

Chinese Wang Tianling proved he was in a class of his own when he captured his second diving gold within three days.

Wang, who took the gold in the men's 1m springboard Thursday, won the men's 3m springboard with 695.10 points from his six final and five semifinal dives.

Mexico's Fernando Platas, silver medalist in the event at Sydney Olympics, was 17 points behind at 678.06 points to place second, followed by Japan's Ken Terauchi with 671.73 points.

Saturday's event was the first diving contest where China didn't get a one-two finish. The country has been dominating the Universiade diving pool, snatching three one-two in as many events in the past two days.

Xian Dongmei won China's fifth judo gold in the games when she beat Russian Oxana Karzakova in the women's 52kg final.

Cuba took its second Judo gold medal when defending world champion Yurisie Lupetey beat Japan's Chika Nonaka in the women's 57kg division.

Egamnazar Akbarov of Uzbekistan trailed until he threw Choi Young-Sin of South Korea in the dying seconds to lift the men's 73 kg gold.

Magam Djafarov of Russia beat Murat Kalikulov of Uzbekistan in the final of the 66kg division.

Saturday's fencing competition was full of upsets as none of the 10 fencers ranked among the world top 32 made the men's individual epee final.

Frenchman Matthieu Denis, ranked 93rd in the world, beat European champion Maksym Khvorost of Ukraine 15-10 to claim his first individual title.

World No. 1 Jorg Fiedler was knocked out in the quarter-finals.

"I'm extremely delightful to win the first gold for France," said Denis, a junior student majoring in sports administration at University of Paris.

Chinese delegation chief Li Furong sent a warning to the United States as he hinted the Chinese could win 30 golds in the games.

"Thirty golds will be possible," Li said.

The Americans have been No. 1 at the University Games since 1991 when they bagged 29 gold medals. Thereafter, they led with: 30 golds at Buffalo, the United States in 1993; 24 golds at Fukuoka, Japan in 1995; 20 golds in Sicily, Italy in 1997; and 30 golds at Palma de Mallorca, Spain in 1999.

The United States, which has only managed three gold medals here, is expected to accumulate medals in the track and field competitions which start on Monday.

In the medal standings, China topped with 15-7-6, followed by Japan in 3-8-6, the United States 3-6-2, Ukraine 3-1-4, Italy 3-1- 2, Russia 2-5-8, Cuba 2-1-1.