Following are the top 10 sports news stories of China in the year of 2012 selected by Xinhua News Agency:
- Chess world champion Hou Yifan claimed a historical victory over Hungarian Judit Polgar, the strongest female player of all time, on January 31, 2012 in their first over-the-board encounter in Gibraltar.
The 17-year-old Chinese grandmaster had white and won an endgame in round seven of the 10th Gibraltar Chess Festiva over Polgar, who had never lost to female player in 20 years.
- With the help of former NBA superstar Stephon Marbury, the Beijing Ducks knocked off title holders Guangdong Tigers 124-121 on March 30 to wrap up a 4-1 victory at the best-of-seven CBA finals for their first-ever Chinese championship.
- Feng Shanshan fired a bogey-free five-under par 67 on June 10 to capture the LPGA Championship by two strokes, becoming the first Chinese golfer to win a major title.
- Two former Chinese soccer heads were sentenced on June 13 to 10 and a half years in prison for taking bribes, marking the culmination of a campaign to eliminate graft in the Chinese professional soccer leagues, which had been afflicted with match-fixing, gambling and other illicit behavior.
Xie Yalong, former deputy chief of China's football association, and his successor Nan Yong, were each fined 200,000 yuan.
- Team China created another Olympic success in London 2012, grabbing 38 gold, 27 silver and 23 bronze medals for the second place on both the medal and gold tally, a second-to-best result only next to that of the 2008 Games on home soil, while their Paralympic counterparts took 95 gold, 71 silver and 65 bronze to top the table.
- Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen, each with two Olympic gold medals, led the Chinese swimmers to major breakthroughs at London Olympic Games.
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