Zhou lifts record weight: China’s Zhou Lulu won the women’s Olympic over-75kg weightlifting gold with a new world record at the ExCel Arena yesterday. World champion Zhou set a new record of 333kg, breaking her old mark from last year’s world championships of 328kg. She also matched South Korean Jang Mi-Ran’s world marker of 187kg in the clean and jerk. And in a stunning competition European champion Tatiana Kashirina, of Russia, set a new snatch world record of 151kg as she missed out on gold by just one kilo. Hripsime Khurshudyan, of Armenia, claimed bronze.
Jin’s pistol double: South Korea’s Jin Jong-Oh completed an Olympic pistol double yesterday, winning the men’s 50m pistol gold eight days after his triumph in the 10m pistol. The 32-year-old sharpshooter amassed 662 total points to lead a South Korean one-two ahead of Choi Young-Rae, who finished with 661.5 points. China’s Wang Zhiwei took bronze with 658.6 points.
Coach quits after flop: Russia’s fencing head coach Vladislav Pavlovich has offered to quit after the team flopped at the Olympics. “I sent in my resignation,” Pavlovich said. “I have no idea whether the federation will accept it or not but I did it yesterday as our squad failed to fulfil the plan for Olympic Games.” The Russian squad grabbed three fencing medals at the Olympics, but failed to win a gold. Russia had set a target of two golds, two silvers and two bronze medals for London.
Lin edges lee in final: China’s Lin Dan became the first men’s singles player to win the Olympic Games badminton title twice as he overcame Lee Chong Wei 15-21, 21-10, 21-19 yesterday. Malaysian top seed Lee faded from the middle of the second game, allowing Lin’s range of strokes to flourish. When Lee’s final shot dropped long, Lin sprinted round the stadium saluting the ecstatic crowd as he held the Chinese flag. Later in the evening, Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng sealed the first ever clean-sweep of all five Olympic Games badminton titles when they won the men’s doubles final. The Chinese pair beat Denmark’s Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen 21-16, 21-15.