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| August 10, 2008 | Sunday | Sha’aban 7, 1429 |
China takes early lead as competitions begin
BEIJING, Aug 9: China took an early lead in the Olympic march to sports supremacy, winning two of the first seven golds when the Beijing Games began in earnest on Saturday.
The remaining golds were shared among the United States, Spain, the Czech Republic, Romania and South Korea.
However, it wasn’t quite the dream start the Olympic hosts wanted to follow the breathtaking opening ceremony the previous night.
Their hopes were on a golden start with the attention-commanding first medal, but their defending champion Du Li wiltered under pressure as Czech shooter Katerina Emmons came through to win with a record-breaking performance.
Pang Wei made amends for China in the shooting, taking the men’s 10m Pistol event and Chen Xiexia won the women’s 48kg weightlifting title, while Spanish cyclist Samuel Sanchez won the gruelling road race.
Choi Min-Ho won for South Korea in the men’s -60kg judo division to add to the silver won by Jin Jong-Oh who was runner up to Pang in the pistol shoot, and Romania’s Alina Dumitru claimed the women’s -48kg judo gold.
Mariel Zagunis won the women’s fencing sabre final for the US’s sole medal of the day, although they can expect to move up the ranks when the swimming finals begin on Sunday.
But there was no sign of nerves neither for China when Chen won her weightlifting gold and set two Olympic records, nor with Pang at the shooting range.
In hazy, hot and humid conditions, Sanchez prevailed in the cycling road race for the biggest win of his career after a tough 6hr 23min 49sec in the saddle and was quick to share the plaudits with his dominant Spanish team.
Pre-race favourite and reigning champion Paolo Bettini of Italy was left trailing after a decisive attack on the final climb by Australian Cadel Evans.
That move also dropped co-favourite Alejandro Valverde of Spain, and ultimately led to a six-man finish with Italian Davide Rebellin a close second and Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara third.
The competition proper began at dawn in Hong Kong when veteran Olympic champion Mark Todd came out of retirement to become the first rider to compete in the three-day equestrian event.
The opening day of the Games, however, was not without controversy as Greece recalled a track athlete after testing positive for a prohibited performance drug.
Greek officials did not immediately name the competitor but Greek media revealed it was men’s 200 metre runner Tassos Gousis, who denied any wrongdoing.—Agencies
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