China claimed two gold medals in table tennis on Thursday to consolidate its lead at the World University Games medal table. With three days of competition left, the Chinese are still in front in the race for the most gold medals won, garnering 15 golds, 18 silvers and 13 bronzes.
After picking up three gold medals in Day 8, Japan climbed to second place on 12 golds. South Korea also had 12 golds, but was third because of a smaller total.
China had a solid day in table tennis as Cui Qinglei and Li Yang held off a strong challenge from Frenchmen Stephane Lebesson and Adrien Mattenet to win the men's doubles final by 11-8, 11-8, 11-4, 7-11, 7-11 and 11-9. The women's doubles final was an all-Chinese affair, with Cai Shanshan and Dai Ningyang prevailing in a hard-fought, seven-set match against teammates Liu Juan and Ma Yuefei.
"Cui and Li had made a lot of preparations for the men's final and their efforts turned out to pay off," said Sun Qilin, a coach of the Chinese table tennis team.
The table tennis competition will close on Friday with the last two events.
Konstyantyn Milyayev of Ukraine produced consistent performance to strike gold in the men's 10m platform with 493.75 points. Mexico's Rommel Aghmed Pacheco had silver on 476.75 points, while Chinese favorite Wang Zihao blundered on his fifth dive and had to settle for a bronze.
Meanwhile, China advanced to the gold medal match of the first-ever Summer Universiade women's water polo tournament, outscoring Canada 6-1 in each of the first two quarters en route to a 16-7 victory.
The Chinese girls will next face Hungary, who edged Russia 11-9.
"We knew that China was a very good team, but we cannot go into the water scared," said Canadian head coach Guyla Toth of Calgary. "China is stronger and faster, but our girls didn't fight. We let them play and score too easily."
Ao Gao scored five goals for the Chinese, Ya Ting Sun, Yi Wang and Huan Huan Ma each recorded hat tricks, while Jin He and Lei Ying Qiao added singles.
In the swimming pool, Hannah Wilson touched in 58.24 seconds in the women's 100m butterfly to capture her second gold here, and the second for China's Hong Kong as well. China's Hong Wenwen claimed silver in 59.19, while Japan's Ayano Kuroki touched third in 59.44.
The 20-year-old had earlier won the women's 100m freestyle.
Japan's Rie Kaneto smashed her Asian record in the women's 200m breaststroke final with a winning time of 2:22.32. That swim broke her Asian and Japanese mark of 2:22.33 set in April 2009. Serbia's Naha Higl took second in 2:24.20, and Russia's Alena Alexeeva completed the podium with a third-place 2:25.40.
Poland's Przemyslaw Stanczyk clocked a Games record time of 14: 51.06 in the men's 1,500m freestyle final for the win. The time broke the record of 15:00.26 set by Chad La Tourette in 2007. La Tourette placed second for the U.S. in 14:53.77, while Italy's Federico Colbertaldo wound up third in 15:03.90.
Russia's Sergey Fesikov used a superior final 50m to claim the men's 100m freestyle title with a 48.43.
The Russians had much to celebrate at the renowned Red Star Stadium as they scooped three out of 10 gold medals in track and field.
Sergey Bakulin sparked a good start in the morning, leading a Russian 1-2 finish in the men's 20-kilometer walk. He clocked a Games record time of one hour 20 minutes 52 seconds to win gold, and compatriot Andrey Ruzavin took silver in 1:21:08.
In the evening session, Eduard Malchenko (high jump) and Viatcheslav Sokolov (men's 1,500m) each added a gold for the traditional powerhouse.
A total of 36 gold medals are up for grabs on Friday.