Nation keeps golden lead in final lap

A gold medal is not everything, nevertheless, everybody cares about it. As the Tokyo Olympics gets nearer to its closing ceremony on Sunday, China has been leading the medal table for several days, followed by the United States and Japan.

With a solid win for Team China in the men's team final in table tennis and a surprise victory by Liu Shiying in the women's javelin throw on Friday, many people have started to wonder whether the United States has got what it takes to surpass China at the top of the medal table in the last two days of the Games.

After Friday's events, China is now leading the medal tally with 36 golds, 26 silvers and 17 bronzes. Following China is Team USA, claiming 31 gold, 36 silver and 31 bronze medals. The host of the Games, Japan, is in third place with 24 gold, 11 silver and 16 bronze medals.

Given that the US delegation is the largest at the Olympics－613 people versus China's 431, this means it has the most chances to win medals. If the US wants to be the supreme athletic nation and surpass China in the total number of gold medals, it probably has to win seven more events.

On the Chinese side, taking the country as a favorite to win in the men's 10-meter platform diving into consideration, its gold medals would reach 37, meaning that the US would need at least seven more golds to take the top spot.

Women's and men's basketball would be Team USA's best shots, as the women's team had taken all the last six Olympic gold medals and the men's team led by NBA star Kevin Durant had made it to the finals.

Women's water polo and volleyball could be another two opportunities for the US, while the nation also has a chance to win in baseball, the men's 400 meters and the women's high jump.

On Friday, the Chinese trio of Ma Long, Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin maintained the dominance of Team China in table tennis by winning 3-0 against Germany's Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Timo Boll and Patrick Franziska.

After losing the game, Ovtcharov said: "The Chinese are very strong, especially when it gets tougher, they only get stronger. That's why we weren't able to win today."

Liu Shiying, who won China's first Olympic women's javelin gold at Tokyo 2020, said: "It means a lot to me and my country. I want to thank everyone, my team, my country and also my parents."

"2020 was a very difficult year for me because of the injury and the pandemic, but I got support and encouragement from all of them,"Liu added.

In other track and field competitions, the Chinese men's and women's 4x100m relay teams both made breakthroughs in their finals: the women's team ended up in sixth place with 42.71 and the men's team got fourth place, only 0.29 second behind the winner Italy.

Defending champion Liu Hong clinched a bronze medal in the women's 20km race walk on Friday and Pang Qianyu claimed a silver medal in the women's freestyle wrestling at the 53 kg level, while Japan's Mayu Mukaida clinched the gold.

"Pang was very strong, I wanted to beat her, and I was determined to get a gold medal. I continued to have that feeling throughout the six minutes," Mukaida said after her victory.