BUSAN, South Korea, 8 October — Saudi Arabia’s Makhld Al-Otaibi rewrote the form book yesterday with a devastating sprint finish to win the men’s 10,000 meters as Saudi Arabia joined hosts South Korea, India, Kazakhstan and China in picking up golds as the track and field events began at the Asian Games.
Al-Otaibi led the field home in 28 minutes 41.89 seconds, with Qatar’s Ahmed Ibrahim Hashim second in 28:43.53 and Bahrain’s Abdul Hak Zakaria taking bronze in 28:46.11.
The five gold medals on the opening day of track and field competition were split between five countries and none was more emotional than Al-Otaibi’s victory.
The unheralded 22-year-old produced a withering burst of speed as he broke away from a bunch of five in the final 200m, kissing his hand and punching his fist in the air as he crossed the line.
“This is the most beautiful success in my career,” the 22-year-old Al-Otaibi said as he was mobbed by Saudi well-wishers.
“What’s more important is that there were three Arabs in the first three places which means we have stamped our authority on the long distances.”
Veteran Qatari Ahmed Ibrahim, who won at the Asian championships in August, found his 31-year-old legs could not match the youngster when it counted and he was left with the silver medal.
Bronze went to Abdul Hak Zakaria of Bahrain who lived to regret that he led the break with seven laps to go and said he was spent in the final sprint.
“I had the confidence to win and I had the power to win,” said Al-Otaibi.
India’s Anju George broke China’s domination of the women’s long jump competition since 1974 with a leap of 6.53 meters on her fifth attempt to finish ahead of Maho Hanaoka of Japan (6.47) and Kazakhstan’s Yelena Kochsheyeva (6.30).
China’s Jin Yan, who finished fifth with a jump of 6.25 meters after a much longer jump drew a red flag, said she felt under pressure after compatriot Gu Ying was knocked out of the competition early for failing to jump 6.0 meters.
The women’s javelin was won by defending champion Lee Young-sun of South Korea in front of her delighted home fans with her first throw of 58.87 meters. China took both the silver and the bronze thanks to Liang Lili and experienced Ha Xiaoyan respectively.
“I am very happy to capture the gold at the 14th Asian Games after I grabbed it in the 13th Asiad,” said a delighted Lee, who announced that she would now be retiring from international competition after battling with a series of injuries.
Valeriy Borissov of Kazakhstan won the first athletics gold at the games with victory in the men’s 20km walk in a time of one hour, 24 minutes and 20 seconds.
Borissov, 36, whose season’s best is 1:22:50, overtook the 27-year-old Yu in the final kilometer after the Chinese had stayed with the leading group throughout the race.
Yu held on to take silver in 1:24:23 ahead of Japan’s 31-year-old Satoshi Yanagisawa (1:25:33), whose compatriot Yuki Yamazaki was disqualified along with China’s Zhu Hongjun.
The women’s 20km walk was won by China’s Wang Qingqing in 1:33.40. Fellow Chinese Gao Kelian took the silver (1:33.59) and Kazakhstan’s Svetlana Tolstaya won bronze.
Shen Shengfei of China leads the women’s heptathlon on 3,484 points after four events. She was first in the high jump and shot put, fifth in the 100 meters hurdles and sixth in the 200 meters.
India’s JJ Shoba and Soma Biswas were in second and third place respectively ahead of today’s long jump, javelin and 800 meters that finish the event. The race for the first Asian man to break the 10 seconds barrier in the 100 meters began with Japan’s Nobuhara Asahara winning the first heat in 10.40 seconds.
Saudi Arabia’s reigning Asian champion Jamal Al Safaar, who won gold at the Asian championships, was first in the second heat with a slightly slower time of 10.44. Saffar will be Asahara’s main rival at Busan Asiad Main Stadium.
The third heat was the fastest of the day as China’s Chen Haijian (10.33) and Kazakhstan’s Gennadiy Chernovol (10.37) set the pace. Both will hope to challenge Asahara for a medal.
However the Saudis lined up two more gold prospects in the heats of the men’s 400m and 400m hurdles.
Hamdan Al Bishi was fastest in the men’s 400 meters heats with a time of 45.26 followed by compatriot Mohammed Al-Salhi who qualified with a time of 47.04, while Qatar’s Mubarak Sultan Faraj was quickest in the 400 meters hurdles in an Asian Games record time of 48.76.
Over the sticks an equally mouthwatering final loomed between Olympic silver medalist Hadi Soua’an Al-Somaily and Asian champion Mubarak Al-Nubi from Qatar.
Drawn in the same heat, Al-Nubi narrowly took the honors in 48.76, breaking an eight-year-old Asian Games record, but Al-Somaily remained confident of turning the tables in the final.
“The race was very fast and strong, but I’m ready for the gold,” said the Saudi who also went under the old games record.
“Mubarak is strong and very fast, but this is very important for me.”
Al-Somaily placed third at this year’s Zurich Golden League meeting in 48.11 seconds and could take the plaudits in Busan. India’s Madhuri Singh was the fastest woman in the 800 meters as she won the second heat in a time of two minutes 8.65 seconds.
Meanwhile, Sun Ruiping became the fourth Chinese weightlifter to set a world record at the Asian Games as the opening day of the athletics competition got under way in a near-empty main stadium in Busan. India thrashed neighbors Pakistan 37-7 in a physical encounter to win a fourth consecutive gold in kabbadi, a 4,000-year-old sport introduced at the 1990 Games in Beijing. Bangladesh took silver and Pakistan settled for bronze to make it a subcontinental sweep of the medals. Japan finished fourth of six.
Sun set world records in the women’s 75kg weightlifting class as the 21-year-old lifted 152.5kg on her third attempt at the clean and jerk and finished with a world best total of 270kg.
Her lift of 118.5kg in the snatch was also a world record.
China still hold a massive lead in the overall medals table as they added five more golds to move onto 97 as of 1205 GMT on the eighth day of competition. Hosts South Korea enjoyed a hugely successful day, winning 15 golds for a total of 47, while third-placed Japan added three golds to improve to 31. Kazakhstan are fourth with 10 golds.
Japan won the men’s team tennis gold for the first time since the 1974 Games in Teheran as Michihisa Onoda and Takahiro Terachi won their singles in a one-sided final against South Korea.
The doubles became redundant after Terachi upset South Korean number one Lee Hyung-taik 6-4 6-2 in the second rubber of a final delayed for 24 hours because of rain on Sunday.
However, South Korea completed a clean sweep of all four gold medals in soft tennis, a version of the game played with smaller rackets and a squashy rubber ball.
Kim Kyung-han and Park Young-hee won the men’s and women’s singles finals respectively, while the host nation also won gold in both doubles competitions. South Korea also won multiple golds in cycling and wrestling and picked up titles in weightlifting, shooting and bowling.
