Table tennis gold for China: China moved within one step of a second successive clean sweep of Olympic table tennis golds when their women marched to victory over Japan’s young team yesterday. Red-hot favourites China beat Japan 3-0, having not lost an individual match throughout the tournament. The win was led by singles gold medallist Li Xiaoxia, who ground down Ai Fukuhara and then partnered Guo Yue (picture) to victory in the doubles, with Ding Ning having thrashed Kasumi Ishikawa in the second rubber. Singapore beat South Korea 3-0 to grab the bronze medal.
Volleyball champs to face Italy: Defending champions the United States will meet Italy in the quarter-finals of the men’s Olympic volleyball competition. Alan Knipe’s men wrapped their round-robin campaign up with a 3-0 win against Tunisia on Monday to top Pool B, while Italy finished fourth in A. Bulgaria topped their pool and will face Germany. Poland were runners-up to Bulgaria and will meet Russia, while Brazil and Argentina will also square up.
Russian diver thwarts Chinese: Russia’s Ilya Zakharov ended China’s hopes of a clean sweep of all eight diving gold medals at the London Olympics with a thrilling victory in the men’s 3m springboard final yesterday. Zakharov pumped his fist in the air as soon as he resurfaced upon scoring a competition high 104.50 points on his last dive to claim the gold medal from Chinese pair Qin Kai and defending champion He Chong. The 21-year-old from Leningrad kept his nerve to deny Qin the gold with a superlative closing forward four and a half somersault that brought a huge roar in the Aquatics Centre.
Girls get flight upgrade: Japan’s women footballers have bagged themselves an upgrade on their plane ride home from the Olympics, the team coach said, after a sexism row over their flight to Europe ahead of the Games. The guaranteed medal that comes with a spot in the final in London will see the world champions sitting in business class for the return to Tokyo. There were claims of sexism after the women were seated with the hoi polloi on the outward leg, while Japan’s less successful men’s squad relaxed in business class.
Deng edges Sui in beam: China’s Deng Linlin upset team-mate Sui Lu to claim the gold medal in the women’s balance beam final yesterday. Sui won the silver medal, with Alexandra Raisman, of the US, snatching the bronze from Romanian Catalina Ponor.