Bangladesh News

France’s Alain Bernard made up for a week of heartache when he won swimming’s blue riband 100m freestyle gold Thursday, and China produced a new sensation as the Olympic spotlight briefly switched off Michael Phelps.

Little known Chinese Liu Zige smashed the world record in the women’s 200m butterfly by 1.6sec, leading China to five gold medals on a day where the United States, without Phelps in a final, failed to win an event.

China continued to head the medal table with 22 gold, more than double the United States on 10, in their challenge to supplant the USA as the world’s sporting powerhouse.

In the overall medal count, China have 35 one more than the United States on 34.

China have invested heavily in sport to showcase their home Olympics, with talent scouts tapping potential champions and putting them through rigorous training regimes.

But the previously unknown Liu denied she had been hidden from the world by coach Zhang Yadong.

“No he didn’t. I’ve improved only in the last year,” the 19-year-old said, explaining her sudden emergence.

“I didn’t feel pressure before the competition, I tried to relax,” said Liu.

“And in the race I just swam at my own pace, not caring about others. My coach said to me that we will have two Chinese swimmers in the final, so you don’t need to force yourself to win gold, you just need to try your best.”

It was China’s first swimming gold of the Games and only its third since its prime at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, when it won four.

Phelps, who has won five gold so far in his bid for an unprecedented eight at a single games, took a back seat on the sixth day of the Olympics with only the 200m medley semifinals and 100m fly heats to contest.

This brought the 100m free final to the fore and success for Bernard who earlier in the week surrendered a commanding lead in the final leg of the men’s 4×100m freestyle relay to be mowed down by US swimmer Jason Lezak.

“I can’t believe it,” he said.

“I know I was feeling down after the relay, but I didn’t want to get beaten.”

It was a classic showdown between Bernard and Australian Eamon Sullivan who had battled for the world record all week, breaking it three times, and were never more than a hair’s breadth apart in the final.

At the halfway mark, Sullivan led by 0.05sec and at the finish it was Bernard by 0.11sec, just outside the record Sullivan set in the semifinals.

There were a further three world records in the pool with Japanese breaststroke king Kosuke Kitajima in the 200m final and the Australian women’s 4×200 freestyle relay team joining Liu.

China again surprised in the relay, finishing second ahead of the United States who had never lost this event at an Olympics.

Heavy rain and thunderstorms again affected outdoor events, disrupting rowing, tennis, canoeing, softball and baseball while archery, shooting and beach volleyball continued under the deluge. Sailing was postponed by light winds.

The tennis delay is likely to further frustrate top seed Roger Federer who has complained of a “ridiculous” schedule in which he has played six matches in four days, including a singles and doubles match less than two hours apart.

The event is Grand Slam-size but crammed into eight days rather than a fortnight, and most of the first day was lost to rain.

Shooter Du Li had no complaints, after wilting under pressure in the women’s 10m air rifle to win the Games first gold medal for China, she made amends in the women’s 50m three positions event.

However, compatriot Wei Ning of China blamed the weather for finishing sixth in the women’s skeet final won by Chiara Cainero who lifted Italy to six gold medals, third equal with South Korea and Germany.

“It really affected my performance because the rain made my gun slippery and I missed several targets.”

Yang Wei maintained China’s gymnastics gold rush, winning their third gold in as many finals with an emphatic win in the individual all-around event.

Zhang Juan-Juan also won gold for China taking the women’s individual archery gold snapping one of the Olympics’ tightest strangleholds in an event won by South Korea in the previous six Olympics.