China's Guo Yue won a bronze medal in the Olympic women's singles table tennis competition Friday, beating Singapore's Li Jia Wei 4-2.
The color of the medal is a big disappointment for the reigning world champion who has rarely finished lower than second in international singles tournaments in the last two years.
Guo failed to reach the final because of her loss to China's "Big Sister" Wang Nan, who is going to retire and determined to win as much as possible at her last Olympic Games.
But Guo won the bronze medal contest 11-6, 14-12, 9-11, 7-11, 11-3, 11-4, shattering Li's hope of winning a second medal at the Beijing Olympics.
The Beijing-born Li put up a brave fight until her semifinal loss to former schoolmate Zhang Yining, the world's top-ranked player and defending gold medalist.
Li and two other former Chinese won a team silver, which is the first Olympic medal for Singapore in 48 years.
"It's an achievement for me to finish in the top four in the singles event in Beijing, with all the other three being Chinese players," she said.
Li finished fourth in the Athens singles competition and failed to reach the last eight in the doubles.
(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2008)