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Jones leads US charge on China's medal stranglehold
2008-08-19
BEIJING, (AFP) - Lolo Jones leads a United States charge to build Olympic momentum Tuesday as China maintain their stranglehold on the medals table, poised to replace the US as the global sports power. China are enjoying their most successful Games with 39 gold medals ahead of the United States on 22 and then Great Britain on 12. Day 12 in Beijing offers 20 finals as well as deciding who the medal contenders will be in men's football. But the day's highlights are again expected to come from athletics in the closing events of a packed programme. Jones is the world's best 100m hurdler this year, ahead of Damu Cherry going into the final in another athletics showdown with Jamaica led by Bridgette Foster-Hylton. "We're going to go for an American sweep, 1-2-3, and see what happens," said Cherry, with the Americans keen to respond to the 100m final where they were blanked out by the Jamaicans. World No.1 Sanya Richards leads the US challenge in the women's 400m, which could provide an explosive head-to-head with Britain's world champion Christine Ohuruogu. Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi, two of the most recognisable names in world football, will be on show when Brazil play Argentina in the men's football semi-finals. Argentina are the defending champions while Brazil, five-time World Cup winners, have yet to win an Olympic tournament and last made the finals 20 years ago. The second semi-final sees Nigeria play Belgium. Great Britain pursuit king Bradley Wiggins will be aiming for a third gold medal and the chance to equal a 100-year-old British record when he starts in the cycling madison race at the velodrome. If successful he will also become the most decorated Olympic cyclist ever with six titles since his Games debut in Sydney. Having already won the individual and teams pursuit races, a madison victory will make Wiggins the first Briton to win three golds at one Games since swimmer Henry Cotton in 1908. A day after the shock retirement of national icon Liu Xiang in the 110m hurdles, Chinese runners appear out of contention in the track finals, but they do expect to clean up in their traditional strengths of diving and gymnastics. He Chong will be trying to add an Olympic gold to his world championship crown, in the men's 3m springboard. China already have five diving golds at these Games. They will also be hoping to add to their eight-gold haul in gymnastics, where gold medals are on offer in the women's balance beam and men's parallel bars, horizontal bar and trampolining. But more than medal success, it was the injury-forced withdrawl of Liu from the 110m hurdles that dominated the Chinese media Tuesday. "A disappointment beyond description," the China Daily said in an editorial, as the Athens hurdles winner and one of China's biggest stars publicly apologised to the 1.3 billion Chinese. The newspaper added that while Liu could not repay "the unreserved support from his compatriots" he remained a hero. "He still is. From him, from his tenacious struggle with injuries over the years, his last-minute attempt to defeat the pains in particular, we saw fine sportsmanship at work. That is what the Olympics are all about." The one gold medal contested Tuesday morning saw outsider Jan Frodeno outsprint Canada's Simon Whitfield to win the men's triathlon by a narrow five seconds. "This was the race of my life," said the German whose sprinting has been his weakpoint in the multi-discipline event. "I lost so many sprints this year, it teaches you to pace yourself." Athens silver-medallist Bevan Docherty of New Zealand took bronze while the race favourite and the world's top-ranked triathlete, Javier Gomez of Spain, faded to fourth in the closing stages.
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