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China to finish atop

AFP, Beijing
Hosts China made sure on Saturday of top-p i n g the Olympics medals table for the first time, dethroning the United States which had dominated the last three Games since finishing second to the former Soviet Union in Barcelona in 1992.
By the end of a day that saw 32 gold medals won, the hosts had 49 golds to 34 for the United States and with just 12 more to be contested on Sunday s c|osiogday.
They reversed the final positions in Athens four years ago when the United States topped the gold medal tally with 36, China was second with a best-ever 32 and Russia was third with 27.
The Chinese have progressively improved their medal standing over the past 20 years and as a matter of national pride were determined to beat the United States and end the Games on home soil as the world's dominant sportingnation.
The United States however regained some lost pride in track and field winning thelast two races in the Bird’s Nest Saturday, putting a week of disappointment behind them when they won the 4x400m relays.
The Americans won their last gold on the penultimate day of the 16-day spectacle when their women basketball team crushed Australia 92-65.
Lionel Messi rewarded Argentina in gold for fighting for his right to be at the Olympics when he set up the winning goal in their 1 -0 triumph over Nigeria in the men’s football final on Saturday.
In a match played in a sizzling 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 F) inside the Bird's Nest, the football superstar put Angel Di Maria clear early in the second half and the Benfica player chipped over the goalkeeper.
In the heat of Beijing it was one of the sport's hottest properties, Messi, who was central to the outcome, and his appearance was only settled a few hours before the first game after his powerful European club Barcelona had blocked their prized striker from taking part.
In a night of doubles. Ethiopian Kenenisa completed the elusive 5.000m-10,000m double and Kenya cleaned up the two middledistance races.
Combat sports again provided controversy with a Cuban taekwondo exponent banned after kicking a referee, and a British boxer claiming he was bitten by his Cuban opponent.
While China took an unassailable lead, victories in the men's and women's 4x400m relays lifted the United States to seven athletics titles, one more than Russia and Jamaica with only the men's marathon on Sunday.
The US track team, who have suffered a week of upsets including losing their all-around sprint crown to Jamaica, recovered thanks to a remarkable run by women's anchor Sanya Richards.
The USA self-dubbed 'Dream Team' when they came to Beijing have endured a nightmare of disappointing performances including losing their sprint crown when trounced by Jamaica.
But it was the Jamaican-born American Richards - who- saved face when she took the baton several metres behind Russia's Anastasia Kapachinskaya and overtook her on the line.
Bekele emulated Ethiopian compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba in claiming the long-distance double - the first man to achieve the feat since another Ethiopian Miruts Yifter at the 1980 Moscow
Games.
Kenya enjoyed a double gold when Wilfred Bungei won their first men's 800m title in 16 years and Nancy Langat won the women's 1500m.
Controversies in combat sports, boiled over in taekwondo when Cuba's Angel Valodia Matos kicked a referee in the head after he was disqualified in his bout.
Matos, a Sydney Olympics winner, was immediately expelled from international competitions, according to a statement read to the crowd.
In boxing. British gold medallist James DeGale claimed he was bitten in his final with Cuba's Emilio Correa and showed journalists a mark on his chest.
The first-round incident cost Correa two points — the eventual margin of victory.
Boxing's governing body AIBA also revealed it had been tracking “possible attempts of manipulation" for months before the Games, but insisted no fights had been fixed.
China increased their lead on the medals table with wins in table tennis, and canoeing but missed out on their quest for eight out of eight diving golds when Australian Matthew Mitcham overtook Zhou Luxin with his last dive in the men's 10m platform final.
In a dramatic baseball final, as the sport made its exit from the
Olympics schedule, South Korea upset regular gold medallists Cuba 3-2.
Meanwhile, weightlifter Igor Razoronov followed his Ukrainian teammate and heptathlon silver medallist Lyudmila Blonska out of the Games when he became the sixth athlete to fail a drugs test. Raznoronov was unplaced in the -105kg category.