GWANGJU, South Korea, July 9  -- Chinese Li Ling cleared4.45 meters to win the women's pole vault title while Russia took four gold medals in the athletics competitions at the 2015 Gwangju University Games on Thursday.

Russia was the big winner of track and field on the day, snatching four gold medals. In women's long jump, Luliia Pidluzhnaia managed 6.79 meters for the title. Dmitrii Sorikin jumped to his personal best of 17.29 meters for the men's triple jump gold, Igor Maximov clocked 29:15.30 to win the men's 10,000 meters title and Yulia Maltseva won the women's discus title with a throw of 59.37 meters.

Russia also took one gold each from diving, shooting and swimming to jump to the third place on the medal table with a total of 19 gold medals.

Japan only managed one gold medal on Thursday through Ayatsugu Hirai and dropped to the fourth place with 17 gold medals.

Besides the women's pole vault title, China also collected four gold medals from diving to remain on the second place of the table with 22 gold medals.

China tops the diving medal standings of Gwangju Universiade with ten gold medals, followed by Russia in the second place with two and Canada ranks third with one title.

The diving competitions at the Gwangju Universiade concluded after the final of men's 10m platform which was won by Wang Yao of China at 498.70 points. Igor Mialin of Russian finished second at453.05 while the bronze medal was won by Wang's compatriot Wang Anqi.

Earlier in the women's synchronized 3m springboard final, Chinese pair Qiu Lin/Sun Mengchen displayed a stunning performance to beat Kim Nami/Moon Nayun of South Korea for the gold medal with313.50.

China also won the men's and women's team titles due to better results in individual and synchronized events.

Host South Korea slowed down its pace of winning gold medals, winning only two gold medals on Thursday. But it still had a tight grip on the first place of medal table with 30 gold, 23 silver and18 bronze medals.

South Korea's two gold medals on Thursday are from the women's sabre team event and women's 57kg taekwondo event.

The United States added three gold medals to its tally, all from swimming. It ranks fifth with 15 gold, 9 silver and 10 bronze medals.

Thursday's only record came from track and field as South Africa's Akani Simbine sprinted to 9.97 seconds in men's 100 meters to set a new game record. Enditem