China grabs historical 100th gold, Bahrain, Qatar into soccer final at military games

Source: Xinhua| 2019-10-25 23:55:46|Editor: yan
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WUHAN, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- China grabbed its 100th gold medal on Day 7 at the 7th Military World Games from women's 1m springboard here on Friday, becoming the first country to collect so many in a single edition, which offers a record of 329 events in the Wuhan Games.

China wrapped up 24 more gold medals Friday, continuing to be the far run-away leader in the medal table with 112 golds, followed by Russia's 43 and Brazil's 19.

In the men's soccer, there will be a new champion as Bahrain and Qatar both reached the final of the sport for the first time.

Chinese diver Huang Xiaohui had 305.70 points in the 1m springboard final, edging compatriot Chang Yani by 2.4 points to contribute the host its 100th gold. Kristina Ilinykh of Russia was third with 298.80 points.

Chinese pair Yang Hao/Lian Junjie won men's platform synchro with a score of 454.26 points while Xie Siyi obtained Friday's last diving gold in men's 3m springboard.

The host also dominated in naval pentathlon, bagging all four golds from men's and women's individual and team events, before they added another three from gymnastics, a demonstration sport at this year's Games, including men's floor exercise, pommel horse and rings.

Bahrain beat two-time defending champion Algeria 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in 120 minutes to reach men's soccer final.

"I am so happy and proud of all the players for what they gave in that performance and for their spirit: they fought until the very last second," said Bahrain coach Ahmed Alamrei. "I hope our players recover fast and have no injuries so they can be ready for the next game."

Bahrain will play the final against Qatar, who edged the 2003 military games champion DPR Korea 2-1 to earn its first appearance in the final.

The United States and Lithuania advanced to the men's basketball final and will show down to earn their first gold medal here. The United States beat Brazil 78-61 in the semifinal as the South American team scored only five points in the fourth quarter, suffering a deficit of 16 points in a single period.

In another semifinal, China lost to Lithuania 70-67 as the host team scored just eight points in the second quarter, trailing 13 points into halftime. Though China had 10 more points in the last two periods, that's not enough to level the gap.

Lithuanian coach Kugauda Marius hailed the victory a great success. "I did not sleep last night, studying videos of China's matches all night," said Marius. "My analysis from the video study really worked today."

"But the last moments, we almost lost our control on the match, anyway we won and this is really great triumph for us."

Belarus snatched its third gold from the track and field thanks to Ekaterina Poplavskaya's win in women's 100m hurdles in 13.36 seconds, rising to 13rd place at medal table. Olga Rypakova covered a distance of 14.19 meters in women's triple jump, giving Kazakhstan its second gold here. Kenya also obtained its second gold from women's 1,500m as Chebet Winnie finished first in 4:25.22, 1.41 seconds faster than Ukraine's Nataliia Pryshchepa.

Four other events in athletics on Friday were all won by China, consisting of men's 20km, 50km race walk, women's 20km race walk and women's javelin throw.

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