BADMINTON ROUNDUP

updated 3:46 p.m. ET Aug. 19, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - The Chinese shook off their early badminton blues in Athens to win the first two golds in the Olympic tournament on Thursday, while Japanese judoka reached a milestone of six titles in their national martial art.

Zhang Ning beat Indonesian-born Mia Audina of the Netherlands to win the women’s badminton singles title. Zhang Jun and Gao Ling defended their Olympic mixed doubles title after a classic duel with Britons Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms.

“Gao Ling told me don’t be too nervous. We won the title four yours ago, so our opponents must feel even more pressure,” Zhang said of their come-from-behind victory in game three to win the final 15-1 12-15 15-12.

The Chinese were expected to dominate badminton, but men’s top seed and world number one Lin Dan was eliminated in the first round and woman’s top seed Gong Ruina was thrashed by Audina in the quarter-finals.

“We needed a gold in badminton today,” Zhang said after a gripping 8-11 11-6 11-7 singles match with Audina. China’s Zhou Mi took the bronze medal.

In China’s other ace-in-the-hole sport, table tennis, defending champion Wang Nan of China suffered a shock exit from the quarter-finals of the women’s singles, losing 4-1 to sixth-seeded Li Jia Wei of Singapore.

Chinese top seeds Niu Jianfeng and Guo Yue lost 4-2 to compatriots Wang Nan and Zhang Yining in the women’s doubles table tennis semi-finals after a rule change that meant teams from the same country were placed in the same half of the draw.

Otherwise the two pairs from China, who dominate table tennis, would have been near-certain finalists. Niu said: “It is very unfair for us, the Chinese, because everybody knows that we are very strong players.

Audina, who won a women’s badminton singles silver for Indonesia at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics before marrying a Dutch gospel singer and moving to Europe, said it was “quite special” to win medals for two countries.

The badminton titles and a world record effort by Liu Chunhong to win the women’s 69 kg weightlifting gold kept China atop the medals table with 14 golds, nine silvers and five bronzes.

The Americans were second with 13 golds, 11 silvers and ten bronzes.

In one of the bigger surprises at Athens, the Japanese were in third place, with nine golds, four silvers and two bronzes.

Japan’s best performance in decades has been powered by a record six judo golds and by double gold medallist swimmer Kosuke Kitajima in the pool.

Four-times world judo champion Noriko Anno added to the Japanese gold chest with defeat of China’s Liu Xia by ippon in the 78 kg class.

But in a major blow, Japan’s Kosei Inoue was beaten for the first time ever in international competition on Thursday when he crashed out of the quarter-finals of the men’s under-100kg.

The Olympic and triple world champion, widely recognised as one of the best competitors ever, was beaten by ippon by Elco van der Geest of the Netherlands.

“So many people were focused on me and I disappointed them,” Inoue said. “I’ve never experienced anything as humbling and devastating in my life.”

South Korea also suffered a blow when Im Dong-hyun and Park Kyung-mo were eliminated in the men’s archery singles quarter-finals.

The South Koreans, looking to sweep the archery golds at Athens, started brilliantly on Wednesday when Park Sung-hyun won her country’s sixth straight Olympic gold with a bullseye with her last arrow to beat compatriot Lee Sung-jin 110-108.

The South Koreans, their chances of hitting their target of 13 golds at Athens slipping out of sight, still look strong in the archery doubles and expect to sweep taekwondo, the punching and kicking martial art developed in ancient Korea.

Badminton - Women's Singles (medals: Aug. 19th) Medal Athlete Country Result Gold Zhang Ning China 8-11, 11-6, 11-7 Silver Mia Audina Tjiptawan Netherlands 11-8, 6-11, 7-11 Bronze Zhou Mi China 11-2, 8-11, 11-6 NBCO: Schedules, preliminary result and complete final results

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