BELGRADE, July 10 (Xinhua) -- China racked up three gold medals at the World University Games on Friday to bring its overall medal tally at the biennial Games to 18.

    With two days of competition left and 55 gold medals at stake, the battle for the most medals won became even more intense as the top four nations in the count were within a distance of three. Japan followed on the heels of China with 17 golds, while Russia and South Korea both had 15 golds.

    Wang Zihao and Li Mengqiang opened the floodgates for China with an expected gold in the men's synchronized 10-meter platform, which Zheng Jie followed suit with triumph in the judo women's open category.

    Tang Liying added a gold medal in table tennis after demolishing Japanese Yuka Ishigaki 11-5, 11-3, 15-13, 11-3 in the women's singles final.

    The Japanese swimmers eclipsed their U.S. peers in the pool on Friday as they claimed four more victories to take their haul of swimming golds to nine.

    With one day of competition remaining for the swimmers, the Americans have also won nine golds but they are six behind Japan in terms of the total.

    Victory for Yumi Kida in the women's 1,500m freestyle, Shiho Sakai in the women's 50m backstroke and Ryosuke Irie in the men's 200m backstroke added to a string of success that included a relay golds.

    Also in the pool, Kenya captured its first gold at the Games when Jason Dunford won the men's 100m butterfly final in 51.29, though he failed to replicate his African record time of 50.85 set during semis.

    Reigning Olympic champion Evgeniya Kanaeva of Russia added yet another title to her glittering cabinet of trophies by winning the women's rhythmic individual all-around final with a score of 113.175 points.

    In soccer, South Korea beat Japan 4-1 for the title of women's tournament, while Ukraine were crowned the men's champions after edging Italy 3-2.

    In volleyball, the Serbian women's team didn't live up to the expectations of home crowds as they went down in five sets to Italy in the final. Poland beat Russia 3-1 in the bronze medal match.

    In basketball, the United States lost a shot at a gold medal after was beaten by Russia 69-68 in the semifinals. Russia's Nikita Shabalkin hit a 3-pointer with 23.3 seconds left to push his team past the U.S., which had led most of the second half but scored only nine points in the final period.

    There are 44 gold medals up for grabs on Saturday, the most for any single day of the 12-day event which will close on Monday.