It was a super Saturday for New Zealand which hauled in a record number of medals in multiple events.
Rowing power-twins Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell took gold at the Women’s Double Sculls while Mahe Drysdale and rowing pair George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle took bronze in the Men’s Single and the Men’s Double Sculls respectively.
At the Bird’s Nest shot-putter Valerie Vili claimed gold defeating 14 opponents with a throw of 20.56 metres in her first attempt.
The Kiwi’s fourth medal came when cyclist Hayden Roulston bagged silver at the Beijing velodrome.
Power factor eight
Swimming machine Michael Phelps won his record eighth gold medal on Sundaymaking him the grandest of Olympic champions.
The US Team powered through the 4 x 100-metre medley relay at the Water Cube, despite the best efforts of the Australian team to spoil history.
The 23-year-old Phelps is now the most coveted Olympic swimmer of all time, crushing the record set by Mark Spitz’s seven-gold performance at the 1972 Munich Games.
Ping-Pong prowess
China clinched gold in the women's table tennis last night, fighting off a strong challenge from Singapore to win 3-0.
Zhang Yining, Guo Yue and Wang Nan ping-ponged their way to glory before an enthusiastic crowd of more than 4000 at the Peking University Gymnasium.
It is the 17th gold medal for China since its national sport was introduced at the 1988 Seoul Games.
Finishing second, Singapore ended its 48-year medal drought since weightlifter Tan Howe Liang claimed silver in 1960.
（英语点津 Helen 编辑）
" style="WIDTH: 120px; HEIGHT: 120px" title="">Marc Checkley is a freelance journalist and media producer from New Zealand. Marc has had an eclectic career in the media/arts working on various projects in theatre, television, online, radio, print and film. Marc spent three months with the China Daily last year leading the online video news initiative. He returns to chinadaily.com.cn as Senior Editor and Producer for the website’s Olympic media news coverage.
" style="WIDTH: 120px; HEIGHT: 120px" title="">Marc Checkley is a freelance journalist and media producer from New Zealand. Marc has had an eclectic career in the media/arts working on various projects in theatre, television, online, radio, print and film. Marc spent three months with the China Daily last year leading the online video news initiative. He returns to chinadaily.com.cn as Senior Editor and Producer for the website’s Olympic media news coverage.