Yu Yang and Du Jing beat Republic of Korea's (ROK) Lee Kyung-won and Lee Hyon-jung 21-15, 21-13 to win the women's doubles final.

Yu Yang (L) and Du Jing of China hold their gold medals for winning the women's doubles badminton event during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium on August 15, 2008. Yu and Du defeated Lee Hyojung and Lee Kyungwon of South Korea 21-15, 21-13, to win the gold. [Agencies]

China is guaranteed a 1-2 finish in the women's singles after its last challenger, Indonesia's Maria Kristin Yulianti, lost in the semifinals.

World No 1 Xie Xingfang will take on defending Olympic champion Zhang Ning in Saturday's clash of the titans as China looks forward to a clean sweep of badminton golds.

But Chinese women lost to the US in volleyball to the disappointment of Chinese spectators, among whom was President Hu Jintao. The US team incidentally is coached by former Chinese spiker Lang Ping.

Playing its first baseball game at the Olympics, The Chinese mainland beat old hand Chinese Taipei 8-7 in a game that went into extra innings and stopped work in Taiwan as fans watched it live on TV.

The game had created such a hype that Chinese Taipei's baseball chief had offered to resign if his team lost.

Back in the Water Cube, Rebecca Soni of the US set a world record in the 200m breaststroke, beating former world-record holder Leisel Jones of Australia.

Ryan Lochte of the US set another world record winning the men's 200m backstroke, pushing compatriot Aaron Peirsol to second spot.

Britta Steffen of Germany won the women's 100m freestyle, edging out Libby Trickett of Australia by four-hundredths of a second.

In canoeing, Slovak twins Peter and Pavol Hochschorner won a record third straight gold in the men's whitewater canoe pairs.

Slovakia collected three of the four possible whitewater golds as Elena Kaliska took the women's kayak title after Michal Martikan had won the men's singles canoe gold on Thursday.

In archery, Ukraine's Viktor Ruban won the gold in the men's individual event, beating world No 3 Park Kyung-mo of ROK by a single point.

Agencies contributed to the story