Chinese athletes lead gold rush in Tokyo
China led the gold rush on the second day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with weightlifters Li Fabin, Chen Lijun and divers Shi Tingmao and Wang Han launching the national team to the top of the medal table.
Team China secured six golds, one silver and four bronzes to lead the medal haul, ahead of hosts Japan, who grabbed five golds and one silver. The United States was in third place with four gold, two silver and four bronze medals.
A traditional diving power, China won its first diving gold medal of the Games on Sunday when Shi and Wang secured victory in the women's 3-meter synchronized springboard. China is aiming for a clean sweep of all eight diving gold medals.
Shi and Wang scored a total of 326.40 points, easily defeating Canada's Jennifer Abel and Melissa Citrini-Beaulieu who took silver with 300.78. Team Germany earned the bronze medal with 284.97 points.
The Chinese duo were tied with the United States pair after their second dive. The US dropped out of contention and China led the five rounds before taking the gold with an inward two-and-a-half somersaults pike dive that carries a high degree of difficulty of 3.0.
They said they were focused on executing the dive, regardless of the points on offer. "I think no matter what we got, gold or silver, it doesn't define our success," Shi said after the event. "It's just the work (involved).The gold medal means we trained hard."
Wang said: "We work very hard in training. We make all the effort we can in our training every day and after five years we were fully ready for this".
In the men's 61-kilogram weightlifting event, 28-year-old Li became the second-oldest weightlifter representing China to claim Olympic gold in a men's event. The oldest winner was Zhang Guozheng in 2004, who won the men's 69kg division.
Li, renowned for his "flamingo" lifting style where he stands on one leg for balance, lifted 141kg in the snatch and 172kg in the clean and jerk for a combined total of 313kg. Both his clean and jerk and total weight set Olympic records.
Li also holds the world records in the snatch, with 145kg, and the combined total, with 318kg.
Also, Chen kept up China's winning start in the weightlifting by securing victory in the men's 67kg class.
On Saturday, student Yang Qian won China's first gold of the Tokyo Games in the women's 10-meter air rifle. China's two other gold medals on Saturday were won by Hou Zhihui in the women's 49kg weightlifting and Sun Yiwen, who won the women's epee.
Contact the writers at wangxu@chinadaily.com.cn
