World top-ranked Zhang Yining claimed China's 100th gold medal in summer Olympic Games as she overcame a fast-hitting DPR Korean in the women's table tennis singles final Sunday (Aug 22) afternoon.

American Justin Gatlin was crowned the fastest human being Sunday night, but a high-profile doping case ruined an otherwise perfect day, with Olympic shot put champion Irina Korzhanenko of Russia set to lose her gold medal after testing positive for a banned steroid.

Gatlin upset more fancied rivals to win the men's 100m final ina personal best time of 9.85 seconds.

The 22-year-old accelerated at halfway and beat Francis Obikwelu of Portugal at the finish by one hundredth of a second.

Defending champion Maurice Greene of the United States took bronze a further 0.01 second back in 9.87.

China's historic 100-gold mark was reached after a timely helping hand by American shooter Matthew Emmons, who misfired the last shot to give the men's 50m rifle 3 positions gold to Chinese Jia Zhanbo.

Jia's gold was China's 99th since the world's most populous nation ended its Olympic title drought in 1984.

Fittingly the landmark 100th gold came on the table tennis court, where China has won 16 golds out of a possible 19 since thesport's Olympic debut in 1988, and where Rong Guotuan claimed China's first world championship of any sports in 1959.

Possessing a fierce topspin backhand, DPR Korean Kim Kyung Ah stormed into the final by brushing aside Chinese world No. 3 Niu Jianfeng and Singapore's Li Jia Wei, the winner over China's 2000 Olympic dual winner Wang Nan.
But Zhang, cheered on by a vocal crowd of Chinese supporters waving national flags, disposed of the 24-year-old Kim 4-0 (11-8, 11-7, 11-2, 11-2) in just 25 minutes, sending China closer to a sweep of Olympic table tennis titles.

Wang Hao will try to complete China's third straight clean-sweep when he meets South Korea's Ryu Seung-min in the men's finalon Monday.

It was the second gold after doubles for Zhang, who had long been under the shadow of Wang Nan, a "grand slam" winner of Olympic, world championships and World Cup crowns.

The 22-year-old from Beijing knew she would win even before the championship duel took place.

"When I shook hands with my rival before the start, I felt her hand was ice cold. So I thought she must be very nervous and I felt more sure about the match," Zhang said.

Editor: Cai Yingbo