12 Aug 2008

China still heads US in gold medal race

2:06 pm on 12 August 2008

The United States inflicted a double dose of basketball blues on China when their women's team powered to a 108-63 blowout win 24 hours after Yao Ming and his troops were pulverized by another big margin.

But China are setting the pace at the top of the medals table and the hosts' success also continued in the tennis with Li Na beating Russian third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6(5), 6-4 in the women's draw.

Going into day four, China has 12 medals -- the same as the United States -- but the hosts have nine golds, five more than South Korea, while the United States and Italy have three.

Australia head the next group with two gold and a total of five ahead of Japan, Britian, and the Czech Republic.

There's a group of seven countries with one each, including India, which had never won an individual gold until shooter Abernath Bindra held his nerve to win the men's 10 metre air rifle.