Paris Olympics: table tennis, diving sweeps as China beat medal forecast in race with US
- Women’s team complete table tennis haul, while eight Aquatics Centre golds make the country the most successful in diving in Games history
China completed clean sweeps in table tennis and diving in Paris yesterday, making history in the latter as the most successful country ever in the sport at the Olympics.
On another golden day in the French capital, there was success too for weightlifter Liu Huanhua and in the women’s rhythmic gymnastics, taking the country’s overall number to 37, just one fewer than the team won in Tokyo three years ago, and four more than the United States had at one point last night.
Pre-Games predictions had forecast China would win 34 gold, a figure they equalled early with Liu’s triumph in the 102kg event. Other opportunities in women’s boxing and artistic swimming overnight meant leaving Paris top of the medal table had become more than just a dream.
There has been an inevitability about China taking all the diving golds available, and Cao Yuan’s successful defence of his 10m platform title made it eight from eight, an unprecedented achievement that put an exclamation mark on the team’s utter domination of the sport.
It also edged the country ahead of the US in most diving titles ever.
Little more than an hour later, there was victory in the women’s team table tennis against Japan, Wang Manyu finishing off a 3-0 victory with a win over Miwa Harimoto. The celebrations with teammates Sun Yingsha and Chen Meng were instant and loud.
