Golden summer

Li Wenwen eased to victory in the women's weightlifting heavyweight class in Paris - hoisting her coach in the air to celebrate - to push China to a neck-and-neck finish with the United States atop the medal table of what had been seen as a spectacular Olympics.

In the event for women with a bodyweight above 81 kilograms, the 150kg Li, who also won the superheavyweight category at the Tokyo Games, dominated to give China a fifth gold in the weightlifting competition.

She was so far ahead after two lifts in both the snatch and clean and jerk that she was able to pass on her final attempt in both categories.

At the end, with victory assured, she came out for the final lift of the competition and instead of picking up the bar, lifted her coach, Wu Meijin.

"A lot of people said online that I should lift my coach," Li said. "I didn't know if he would get angry, but I did it anyway."

The 24-year-old finished with a total of 309kg, 10kg ahead of Park Hye Jeong of South Korea, with Tokyo silver medalist Emily Campbell of Britain another 11kg behind.

Traditionally the men's superheavyweights close the Olympic program. In their place, the women spent the morning hamming for the crowd who responded with raucous support.

While the Chinese took half the 10 weightlifting golds with the United States tied for second, the sport, practiced in sweaty gyms at all levels of society around the world, did spread the success.

Several large Olympic countries lying in the lower reaches of the medals table, notably Colombia, Thailand and Indonesia, lifted their small totals, as did traditional weightlifting powers Bulgaria and Georgia.

And as women started the last event in Paris, the International Testing Agency said no weightlifters had so far failed tests, but added it would be one or two days before their labs processed all the samples collected on Saturday and Sunday.

The US looked set to top the medal race, with its women's team favored to beat France for the baketball gold.

China also underlined its total domination of diving by winning its eighth gold out of eight events, as Cao Yuan triumphed in the men's 10m platform.

Just as well the Chinese swept the board in the table tennis for the sixth time in Olympic history, with China's women overpowering Japan in the team event.

China's women boxers made an Olympic breakthrough in Paris with their first golds in a sport that was once banned under Mao Zedong.

Women's boxing made its Olympic debut at London 2012 and after some near-misses, China struck gold this week with three titles in as many days at Roland Garros.

On the last night of boxing, Li Qian won gold at 75kg. With two silvers as well, China was easily the most successful women's boxing team at the Games.

China claimed its first gold medal in the duet artistic swimming event as the Wang twins did just enough to hold off three other pairs of sisters fighting for the title.

Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi began their free routine in dramatic fashion, crawling like panthers to the edge of the water before diving in. As they had done during their technical routine on Friday, the twins commanded the pool, gliding gracefully during their performance and stretching through the space in the water.

As matches, bouts and races ended, attention turned to the closing ceremony at the Stade de France and the next Olympics in Los Angeles in four years.

LA was expected to play heavily on its Hollywood star power and roll out its big guns.

The worst-kept secret in Paris was that Top Gun star Tom Cruise appeared poised to close the ceremony with a spectacular stunt sequence.

Hong Kong cyclist Ceci Lee Sze-wing and taekwondo athlete Lo Wai-fung were named as closing ceremony flag bearers for the 35-strong delegation.

AGENCIES and STAFF REPORTER