Chinese swimmers broke the United States' run of 10 successive Olympic gold in the men's 4x100m medley relay, while Novak Djokovic claimed his first tennis men's singles Olympic title at Paris 2024.
PARIS, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- China rallied past the United States to clinch its first men's 4x100m medley relay Olympic gold on the last competition day of swimming at Paris 2024, while 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeated Spain's Carlos Alcaraz to seize his first Olympic title here on Sunday.
The United States top the medal tally with the same 19 golds as China, but more silver medals than second-placed China.
Chinese quartet of Xu Jiayu, Qin Haiyang, Sun Jiajun and Pan Zhanle claimed the men's 4x100m medley relay gold in three minutes, 27.46 seconds, more than half a second ahead of the U.S. team of Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Caeleb Dressel and Hunter Armstrong.
The result broke the United States' run of 10 successive gold medals in this event dating back to the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games.
"This is magic for me. We made a good team and managed to get a great result," said Pan, who celebrated his 20th birthday on Sunday, and also won the men's 100m freestyle title in 46.40 seconds on Wednesday, beating his own world record of 46.80 set at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha.
The U.S. team of Regan Smith, Lilly King, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske clocked three minutes, 49.63 seconds to win the women's 4x100m medley relay title, breaking their own previous world record of 3:50.40.
American Bobby Finke set another new world record at La Defense Arena, as he retained the men's 1,500m freestyle title in 14 minutes, 30.67 seconds, eclipsing the previous record of 14:31.02 set by China's Sun Yang at London 2012.
"I felt pretty good at the 300m. It wasn't necessary trying to keep building my lead on them, but maintaining where I was," the 24-year-old Finke said. "The world is getting faster, and it's a really healthy thing for the sport. If one country is always dominating, I can't really sit there and say the sport is growing."
Sweden's Sarah Sjoestroem claimed her second gold at the Paris Olympics by powering to victory in the women's 50m freestyle final. "It doesn't get any better than this. This is the peak of my career for sure," said the 30-year-old after her fifth Olympic journey.
As all swimming golds of Paris 2024 were settled, the United States and Australia bagged eight and seven golds, respectively, while the 22-year-old French swimmer Leon Marchand pocketed four golds for the hosts. Chinese swimmers claimed two gold medals.
Also on the last day of tennis, five-time Olympian Djokovic defeated second seed Alcaraz in straight sets 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2).
"Three out of four Olympic Games, I lost in the semifinals. I won a bronze at Beijing 2008, which was my first Olympic Games," the 37-year-old Serbian noted after the victory. "I couldn't be prouder and happier to win a gold for my country. Playing for Serbia has always been my upmost, real pleasure, priority."
In the much-anticipated men's 100m at Stade de France, Noah Lyles of the United States lived up to the expectation to seal the gold in a personal best of 9.784 seconds, winning an exceptionally tight contest by just 0.005s faster than the runner-up Kishane Thompson from Jamaica.
World record holder Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh claimed gold in the women's high jump, clearing her best effort of 2.00m, while the men's hammer was dominated by reigning world champion Ethan Katzberg of Canada, whose first attempt of 84.12m was just 0.68m shy of the Olympic record.
Elsewhere, China's Fan Zhendong overcame Truls Moregard of Sweden 4-1 to win the table tennis men's singles gold. "I lost the first set, then fell behind in the second and third set. If I didn't deal with some key points well, the result might be different," Fan said. "I believed in myself and was able to adjust and find solutions. I'm quite happy with that."
In gymnastics, Liu Yang and Zou Jingyuan of China achieved a 1-2 finish in the men's rings, which was the first gold medal claimed by Chinese gymnasts in Paris.
Monday will be the last competition day of gymnastics, badminton, shooting, canoe slalom, 3x3 basketball, and triathlon. ■
