China swept 10 golds from track and field, fencing, tennis, table tennis and diving to boost their gold collection to 45, leaving the United States only a mathematical chance of catching up with three days to go.

Andrew Pierce and Demetria Washington gave the United States the men's and women's 400m sprint titles and American athletes also triumphed in the 3,000m steeplechase and women's long jump.

Washington stormed home in 51.22 seconds in the women's 400m final and Pierce snatched the men's one-lap sprint in 45.34.

Anthony Famiglletti of the US led for most of the 3,000m steeplechase, lost the lead to Jakub Cazaja about 600 meters out and then overtook the Polish champion going over the last barrier to win in 8 minutes, 21.97 seconds.

Miguel Pate of the United States won the women's long jump with a leap of 8.07 meters, edging Namibian Stephan Louw and Botswana's Gable Garenamotse,.

China walked away with two track and field golds as Gao Hongmiao won the women's 10km walk in a meet record of 43.20 seconds and Gao Shuying cleared 4.52 meters for the women's pole vault title.

Gao beat second-placed Susana Feitor of Portugal by 20 seconds, with Olympic champion Wang Liping in third place in 44.01.

Aleksander Tammert got Estonia's first gold when he threw 65.19 in the men's discus and Spaniard Pedro Esteso won the men's 1,500m in 3:43.98.

In the other athletics finals, Russia's Alexei Krovtsov took the men's high jump with a best leap of 2.28 meters, Italy's Lorenzo Cavillero won the men's 20km race in 1:24.42, Australian Jane Jamieson snatched the women's heptathlon event with 6,041 points, Cuban Osleidys Menendez grabbed the women's javelin title.

In swimming, Japan lifted three golds and the United States got two.

Japanese Reiko Nakamura, Yuko Sakaguchi and Yuko Nakanishi won the women's 200m backstroke, 200m breaststroke and 200m butterfly respectively.

American Clay Kirkland took the men's 200m freestyle event and his teammates won the men's 4x100 medley relay.

China won four diving golds yesterday night to complete a clean sweep of 12 diving events.

Tian Liang and Hu Jia took the men's 10m platform synchronized diving, and Yang Lan and Li Rongjuan got the women's 3m springboard synchronized title.

China also bagged the men's and women's team diving titles.

The host country made a clean sweep in table tennis too, taking seven golds after world No 1 Wang Liqin took the men's singles title.

Wang Liqin, world singles champion and Olympic doubles gold medallist, crushed Chinese Taipei's Chuan Chih-Yuan 3-0 in the men's singles final and Zhang Yining and Niu Jianfeng won the women's doubles final with a 2-1 victory over South Korea's Ryu Ji-Hye and Kim Moo-Kyo.

(China Daily 08/30/2001)