With action at the Beijing Paralympics in full swing, China and Britain are in a neck-and-neck race for the top spot in the gold medal tally.
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China's Cheng Changjie defeats Poland's Janusz Bulyk in the men's individual recurve match of the 1/16 elimination round yesterday at the Olympic Green Archery Field. [China Daily]
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At the end of Day 4, China was in the lead with 24 gold, followed by Britain with 21 and the United States with a distant15.
But at one point in the day, Britain leapfrogged overnight leader China before the host nation returned to the top mainly because of the superb performance of table tennis players.
Liu Jing, Li Qian, Zhou Ying and Ren Guixiang were all victorious in their respective classes, giving China four out of five table tennis gold medals on offer Tuesday.
Polish teenage star Natalia Partyka spoiled a clean sweep by China, defeating Fan Lei in straight sets to successfully retain her crown in the F10 category.
"In Athens four years ago, it was easy. Here I had much better opponents but I concentrated hard and just played my own game," said Partyka.
"Unfortunately, table tennis is not so famous in Poland. I love to play in China. China is my lucky place."
Partyka, born without a right and forearm, and South African amputee swimmer Natalie du Toit are the only two Paralympians who competed in last month's Olympics.
However, two other Athens Paralympic table tennis champions -- Mateja Pintar of Slovenia and Zhang Xiaoling of China -- suffered bitter defeats. Zhang, a 51-year-old veteran who was seeking her sixth straight singles title, lost 3-2 to Sweden's Josefin Abrahamsson in the semifinal, and Pintar was beaten 3-1 by eventual winner Li Qian in the battle for a finals berth.
Andrea Zimmerer of Germany, Clara Podda of Italy, Kelly Van Zon of Netherlands and Tommy Urhaug of Norway, all seeded No 1 in their respective classes, also fell at the semifinal stage.
There was more Chinese success in track and field, with Zhang Lixin (men's 400m T54), Zhu Pengkai (men's javelin throw F11-12) and Wu Qing (women's javelin throw F35-38) all striking gold and breaking world records.
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China's Zhang Lixin (C) greets the audience on the podium during the awarding ceremony for the final of men's 400m T54 of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, at the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, in Beijing, China, Sept. 10, 2008. Zhang Lixin claimed the title of the event with a time of 45.07 seconds and set a new world record. [Xinhua]
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Wu Guojing added a powerlifting gold for China when he won the men's 52kg division.
In cycling, Britain was just as dominant as China in table tennis. British riders nabbed three more gold at the Laoshan Velodrome yesterday to increase their haul to 12.
They won all but one Paralympic track cycling event in which they entered following last month's Olympics where the team won seven out of 10 titles.
"For us, the British cycling team, I think we exceeded what we expected -- eight gold," said Darren Kenny, who led Britain to beat China for gold in the men's team sprint. "Now we've got 12 gold, so we have achieved our goal."
There was more success at the Water Cube, where Britain won two more gold and set a world record in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay.
Americans won two gold, with Roy Perkins stopping Brazilian Daniel Dias' gold rush.
More than 4,000 athletes from 147 countries and regions are competing in 20 sports in five different categories of disability, with a total of 472 gold medals at stake.
