China Win 100th Olympic Gold, on Track for Record Haul

China won yesterday its 100th gold medal since joining the Olympics in Los Angeles 20 years ago, as it set itself for a record haul in Athens and even greater glory when it hosts the Games in 2008.

World No. 1 Zhang Yining achieved the milestone with victory in the final of the women’s singles table tennis tournament, giving her two golds for the Games following her doubles crown with Wang Nan on Friday.

Zhang’s singles gold was the 20th of the Athens Olympics for China, adding to the 80 the Asian giant has won since 1984. China began its Olympic career at the boycott-weakened Los Angeles Games with 15 gold medals, and followed up in Seoul four years later with just five.

But by 1992, China’s now-famous production line system of producing sporting champions had begun to pay off, and the Asian giant won 16 medals in Barcelona, a feat repeated in Atlanta four years later.

Sydney saw China explode into the elite group of Olympic nations with 28 gold medals, placing it third on the gold and overall medal tally behind the United States and Russia.

China Olympic Committee officials had played down expectations for Athens, saying the nation’s target was just 20 gold medals as it fielded a young team to prepare them for a much bigger haul when Beijing hosts the next Games.

But with China already achieving its benchmark 20 golds on just the ninth full day of competition in Athens, China looks set to break its record haul and perhaps even replace Russia as the second-most powerful Olympic nation.

Russia, which has traditionally jostled with the United States for Olympic supremacy, was languishing in sixth place on the medals table on yesterday with seven golds.

Fittingly the landmark 100th medal came in the table tennis arena, where China has won 16 golds out of a possible 19 since the sport was introduced into the Olympics in 1988.

Zhang modestly played down the importance of the 100-gold milestone after her 11-8, 11-7, 11-2, 11-2 victory over unseeded North Korean Kim Hyang-Mi.

“I think this makes my gold medal more interesting but to me, whether it is the 100th or the first, a gold medal is a gold medal so they all have the same significance,” she said.

Zhang’s win also keeps China’s hopes alive of achieving a clean sweep of all the men’s and women’s table tennis events for a third consecutive Olympics.

Aside from the two women’s victories, top seeds Chen Qi and Ma Lin won the men’s doubles on Saturday while world No. 4 Wang Hao will compete in the men’s singles final today.

Less than an hour before Zhang’s victory, Jia Zhanbo won China’s 19th gold of this Olympics and 99th ever in the men’s 50m rifle three positions shooting event.

China will be looking to divers Lao Lishi or Li Ting to bring home another gold later in the finals of the women’s 10-meter platform. China has already won the other three events of the diving competition.

The under-achieving men’s basketball team has been one of the few dampeners of China’s Athens campaign, and Yao Ming’s men again flopped on Saturday night with an 89-52 loss to Italy on Saturday night.

China Claim Women’s Tennis Doubles Gold

• Li Ting and Sun Tian Tian won the women’s tennis doubles gold medal for China when they beat Spain’s Conchita Martinez and Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-3, 6-3 in yesterday’s final.

Paola Suarez and Patricia Tarabini of Argentina beat Shinobu Asagoe and Ai Sugiyama of Japan in the bronze medal match on Saturday.

Li, 24, and Sun, 22, had knocked out defending champion Venus Williams and Chanda Rubin of the United States in the first round.