Photo: Meng/Yang of China retain Men's Canoe Double (C2) 500m gold

(BEIJING, August 23) -- Defending champions China's Men guo liang and Yang wenjun successfully won gold again with a time of 1:41.025 minutes in the final of the Men's Flatwater Canoe Double (C2) 500 meter on Saturday, August 23.
Russia's Sergey Ulegin and Alexander Kostoglod finished 0.257 seconds after for a silver medal, and third place went to Germany's Christian Gille and Thomasz Wylenzek.
The Chinese pair kept the lead throughout the whole 500m. The Russian pair ranked fourth in the first half and sped up to second place in the latter half.
This is the first Olympic experience for Russia's Ulegin, but the fifth time for his partner Kostoglod, who claimed bronze in this event in Athens.
The German pair maintained third place throughout the race. They ranked fifth in this event in Athens.

Chinese Zhang Yining wins Olympic table tennis singles gold

Zhang Yining of China returns the ball during the women's singles gold medal match of Beijing Olympic Games table tennis event against her compatriot Wang Nan in Beijing, China, Aug. 22, 2008. Zhang Yining

BEIJING, Aug. 22 -- World number one Zhang Yining won her fourth Olympic gold, beating teammate Wang Nan 4-1 in an all-Chinese women's singles table tennis Olympic final here Friday evening.
Zhang won 8-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-3, becoming the third Chinese table tennis player to pocket four Olympic golds, after legendary Deng Yaping and Grand Slam veteran Wang.
It was also the 19th Olympic gold medal that China won in table tennis since its national sport was introduced at the 1988 Seoul Games.
With a 4-2 win over Singapore's Li Jia Wei, China's Guo Yue finished third, a disappointment for the world champion who had rarely finished lower than second in international singles tournaments in the last two years.
Guo failed to reach the final because of her 4-2 loss to "Big Sister" Wang, who is going to retire and determined to win as much as possible at her last Olympic Games.

Chen Ruolin wins Women's 10m Platform Diving gold

Chen Ruolin of China won the gold medal in Women's 10 meter Platform Diving at the Beijing Olympic Games here on Thursday.
Chen scored a total of 447.70 points for gold, the seventh diving title for host China. The silver medal was taken by Emilie Heymans of Canada at 437.05. Another Chinese diver, Wang Xin, finished third with 429.90.

Elsewhere, the USA displayed the value of team work, by taking two team sport titles and a one, two, three on the track…just don't mention the words "baton" and "drop" to them though.
But where else can we start Day Thirteen's review than the National Aquatics Centre where 15 year-old Chen Roulin produced one of the stellar displays of Beijing 2008 by not just by winning the Women's 10m Platform gold medal to keep China's indomitable quest for eight gold medals on track, but by showing the true mark of a champion - by performing best when it mattered most – under pressure.
Chen may be World No. 1 with an Olympic Team gold medal safely tucked inside her kitbag, but when Emilie Heymans of Canda put in a remarkable fourth round dive worth 95.20, it was looking like as if Day Thirteen would prove unlucky for Chen and for China –this was the very same gold medal that evaded the country's clutches at Athens in 2004.
That is when Chen responded like a great. A dive of 89.10 left her behind, going into the final round behind Heymans, who couldn't quite repeat the magic of her previous effort. But it still looked good enough to win, that is, until Chen produced a near perfect dive with the last leap of the competition.
Despite the almost intolerable pressure mounted on such young shoulders, Chen's final dive earned an amazing 100.30 points – enough to take the title with ease.
Disappointed Haymens could only look on with frustration – she leaves with yet another silver medal while Chen's teammate wang took bronze…….so now it is China all down the Men's 10m platform on Saturday (August 23). Surely they won't miss out now, will they?
Another great story also happened in water today – this time, of human triumph over adversity - with a major surprise as Maarten van der Weijden of the took the Men's 10km Marathon Swissming gold medal at a rainy Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park.

China's Wu Jingyu wins gold in women's taekwondo 49kg category

Wu Jingyu of China celebrates after defeating Buttree Puedpong of Thailand during the women’s 49kg gold medal match at the Beijing Olympic Games taekwondo event in Beijing, China, Aug. 20, 2008. Wu Jingyu won the match and got the gold medal.

BEIJING, Aug. 20 -- China's Wu Jingyu claimed title in the women's 49kg category taekwondo event on Wednesday, beating Thai Buttree Puedpong 1- (-1).
With the deafening cheerings from home fans, Wu launched aggressive attacks as soon as the final began and scored one point with a side kick and made the opponent get a warning penalty.
She took the lead into round 2, and in the third round, her furious attacks made Buttree almost give up counterattacks, which lead to another warning penalty and finally an one-point reduction.
The responsive fans made countdowns in the last six seconds and roared to the newly-crowned who burst into tears.
The 21-year-old won the preliminary round and quarterfinals both with a seven-point advantage. She stepped into an intense competition with old rival Yang Shu-chun of Chinese Taipei, who beat her at the Asian championships in April.
Although Wu took a two-point lead from the beginning as she successfully loaded an axe kick on Yang's head, Yang kept making defensive kicks and managed to get one point in the second round. However, Yang failed to score more points in rest of the game and was defeated by Wu with 1-4.
With the victory against Yang, it seemed the final is not a big deal for her.
Yang lost her last opportunity to get a bronze as she lost the repechage game to Cuban Daynellis Montejo, who settled for the bronze together with Dalia Contreras Rivero of Venezuela.
According to a rule newly introduced at Beijing Olympics, losers to the finalists can play in the repechage to compete for two bronze medals