閱讀理解
The curtain came down on the 2008 Olympic Games yesterday but not before the day had thrown up some pleasant surprises.
A country that has produced some great long-distance runners had to wait for Beijing to win its first marathon gold.Samuel Wanjiru did that honor for Kenya, and in Olympic record time, too.
China was expected to top the gold medal list, taking 51 to end up with total medals equal to the wonderful round figure of 100.China's gold effort is the biggest after the former Soviet Union's 55 gold medals in Seoul 1988.
Though the US was the second on the gold list, the first time it slipped from the top since 1992, it beat its own record of total number of medals winning 110 medals.
The 17-day Beijing Games saw 43 world records and more than 120 Olympic records broken.
The International Olympic Committee(IOC)was pleased with the Games and the hosts, with IOC President Jacques Rogge saying at the closing ceremony:“Thank you to the people of China, to all the wonderful volunteers and to BOCOG(Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games).
He said the world would remember the 17 glorious days of the Games forever.
China's central leadership congratulated the country's athletes for their “achievements”.The Communist Party of China's Central Committee and the State Council sent a joint(共同的)congratulatory message to them.
The celebration is not China's alone.Every country that took part in the Games had reasons to be excited, for many a country won its first Olympic medal in Beijing.Britain's athletes gave the country a lot to cheer about before hosting the 2012 Games.Britain's gold effort and its overall position on the medal's list were the best in a century.