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Roundup: US Rams into Great Wall, Li Na Hits Golden Triple
Towering Yao Ming slapped away the United States' last chance with 0.2 seconds left as the over- confident Americans rammed into the "Great Wall" of Chinese men's basketball on Thursday.
China's 83-82 win snapped the US 46-game winning streak in the World University Games and grabbed China's first ever win over the Americans in world multi-sports event.
Day Nine of the 21st Universiade also saw Chinese women tennis player Li Na complete a golden treble.
The host country piled up six gold medals from track and field, tennis, volleyball and rhythmic gymnastics, raising its gold tally to 51, which could place China at third among the all-time Unversiade overall leaders.
China is set to topple five-time overall winner United States when the University Games ends on Saturday. A record of 51 golds has put China only behind former Soviet Union in the all-time winners list, which topped the 1973 and 1983 Games with 68 and 59 golds respectively.
None of the overall winners has surpassed 44 golds since 1983.
The US semifinal loss would certainly disappoint International University Sports Federation (FISU) president George Killian, who predicted his fellow Americans would "climb over the Great Wall" in a clash of titans.
The FISU chief forgot not to take the side when he took an interview in Xinhua newsroom hours before the match.
"We are quicker," said Killian, former president of the U.S. Basketball Association and the International Basketball Federation. "But you have the big towers. What we have to do tonight is to climb the towers."
He was referring to the Chinese trio centers dubbed as "Moving Great Wall" -- Yao Ming, Menk Batere and Wang Zhizhi, the first Asian playing for NBA in Dallas Mavericks.
Yao, who stands 2.25 meters high, slammed American Lonny Baxter's hoop jumper away to the back court just before the buzzer to secure the one-point victory.
The U.S. basketball team, who had 12 Universiade titles including six straight golds, kept an unbeaten record of 46 games going to Wednesday's semifinal.
China will face the winner of the Germany vs Yugoslavia match in the championship game, vying for China's first gold in men's basketball in the world level competition.
"We were well prepared and determined to win," said Chinese head coach Wang Fei. "We tried hard to rely on the inside on offense and gave pressure on the American outside shooters on defense."
"China has some extremely big guys and they did a good job to execute their inside game," said U.S. head coach Jerry Dunn. "I'm disappointed of losing the game. The U.S. always expects to win the title."
The Chinese women hoopers crushed the Czech Republic 95-75 Thursday afternoon. Their final rivals are -- Yes. The Americans.
China also won the women's volleyball gold, beating Russia 3-1 (25-17, 25-18, 15-25, 25-10).
"It's a match between Russians' height and our quickness and change, and it turned out to be in our favor," said Chinese coach Lin Yuting.
In the men's volleyball final, the United States managed its sole gold of the day by beating France 3-1.
The United States finished a distant second overall with 17 golds, followed by Russia with at and Japan at 11.
Chinese top women tennis player Li Nan, who claimed the women's doubles crown on Wednesday, swept the women's singles and mixed doubles top honors on Thursday.
The 20-year-old Li, seeded second and ranked 240th in the world, stunned Chinese Taipei's Janet Lee, top seed and world No. 87, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, in the singles final, and then paired up with Zhu Benqiang for the mixed doubles title.
In athletics, Li Qiumei got the women's discus gold with a throw of 61.66 meters, beating teammate Li Yanfeng into second place.
Israel's Alexander Averbukh landed the men's pole vault title by clearing 5.80 meters and Manuela Montebrun of France upset world champion Cuban Gonzalez Yipsi Moreno to win the women's hammer event.
Manuel Martinez from Spain won the men's shot put in 20.97 meters.
China also lifted two golds in the 5 Clubs and 3 Ropes/2 Balls finals of rhythmic gymnastics, with Ukraine's Tamara Yerofeyeva walking away with the individual all-around title.
On the last day of fencing competition, Russia snatched both men's and women's sabre team finals, beating Italy and China respectively.
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