DOHA, 7 December 2006 — Another world record was demolished by a Chinese lifter yesterday but their swimmers suffered more misery in the Asian Games pool and Hong Kong upset their world champion paddlers.
China ended day five with 76 gold medals, 16 more than it started with. Japan has 22 and South Korea 15. Kazakhstan, thanks to its shooters and weightlifters, has 10.
Mu Shuangshuang smashed the world snatch mark on the way to winning gold in the +75kg category of the women’s weightlifting, bringing to five the number of world records to fall in Doha.
The 22-year-old double world silver medalist lifted 139kg to beat by 1kg the previous record set by South Korean Jang Mi Ran in May.
Jang, a double world champion, had to make do with silver with Thailand’s Annipa Moontar taking bronze.
“The pressure was more on her because she won this medal last time around in Busan,” said Mu. “I admit that I was nervous when I first arrived in Qatar but after touching the bar in training that all drained away.” Iran’s double Olympic weightlifting champion Hossein Rezazadeh, one of the strongest men on earth, barely broke a sweat in winning the heavyweight 105+ category.
Iranian Hercules, as he is known, added to a collection that includes back-to-back Olympic titles and the last four world championships crowns.
While the Chinese have been thumping allcomers across the board, its swimmers have not lived up to the high standards demanded by coach Zhang Yadong, who, like all competitors, has his eye on the Olympics in Beijing.
Japan dealt them another blow on yesterday, taking half the titles on offer, forcing the Communist giant to scale back its medal ambitions.
Zhang was targetting at least 20 gold but will almost certainly have to revise that downwards with just one day to go in the pool.
Japan won one men’s gold and two women’s gold on the night thanks to a stunning upset in the women’s 800m freestyle, won by Yurie Yano in a time of 8:29.51 from China’s Yang Jieqiao. Maiko Fujino of Japan won the bronze.
Another women’s gold came from Reiko Nakamura in the 100m backstroke Hidemasa Sano, the winner of the 400 meters individual medley, collected his second gold in the 200m medley. China’s women, meanwhile, lost their 24-year, 100-percent Asian Games rowing record when Uzbekistan clinched the lightweight double sculls title. There was mixed news for China’s top ranked gymnasts.
Yang Wei joined Chinese compatriot Li Ning as the most successful gymnast in Asian Games history when he won the men’s parallel bars to clinch his eighth career gold medal, but his team fell well short of an expected clean sweep.
North Korea’s Ri Se Gwang took the men’s vault title, giving his country a first ever win on the apparatus at an Asian Games, and Japan’s Hisashi Mizutori won the men’s horizontal bars.
While China’s Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxia won the women’s table tennis doubles gold, defeating Hong Kong’s Tie Ya Na and Zhang Rui, their men, the Olympic champions, were upset.
Hong Kong’s Ko Lai Chak and Li Ching were responsible, downing complacent top seeds Chen Qi and Ma Lin.
Elsewhere, Japan was dumped from the football competition after losing in the group stage to North Korea, while Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan, the defending champion, pulled out of the tennis singles injured.
• Vietnam won their first gold medal of the Asian Games yesterday, beating traditional sepaktakraw powerhouse Thailand in a thrilling women’s team final.
The Vietnamese had looked set for a trouncing after trailing 9-0 and going down 21-13 in the first set, but clawed it back with some impressive blocking and a powerful service game.
They won the next two sets to take the opening regu but Thailand answered back with a combination of sturdy defending and fierce attacking play to force a deciding third regu.
• Yang Wei joined Chinese compatriot Li Ning as the most successful gymnast in Asian Games history when he won the men’s parallel bars to clinch his eighth career gold medal.
Yang, who shared the title with South Korea’s Kim Dae Yun after both men scored 16.300, picked up his fourth gold of these Games.
Japan’s Shun Kuwuhara took bronze.
The 26-year-old was strong throughout his routine and managed to stick to his dismount despite reportedly struggling with fatigue to equal Kim’s earlier effort.
China’s Zhang Nan was also in record-setting mood with her women’s beam giving her a sixth Asian Games gold and providing her country’s 100th title success in Games gymnastics history. Zhang is now just two golds behind record-holder Chen Cuiting, also of China, who won her titles in 1986 and 1990.
Zhang had already won gold in the team event here to add to the four she collected in Busan in 2002. North Korea’s Ri Se Gwang took the men’s vault title giving his country a first ever win on the apparatus at an Asian Games.
• Wang Chengyi grabbed an unexpected Asian Games gold medal as China continued their overwhelming domination on the Lusail shooting ranges here yesterday.
Wang, 23, annexed the women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions individual title from Kazakh veteran Olga Dovgun after helping her country win the team event earlier in the day. China won five of the six golds decided yesterday to take their overall tally to 24 golds from the 34 shooting events contested so far.
Kazakhstan trail in second place with five golds, followed by Kuwait and South Korea with two each and Thailand with one.
With eight more events left over the next two days, China are well-placed to surpass their haul of 27 golds at the Busan Asiad four years ago. Bakhtiyar Ibrayev and Andrey Gurov of Kazakhstan picked up the bronze after helping their country win the team gold earlier in the day. China won both titles in the men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event.
Hosts Qatar took a silver in the team event, their fourth medal from the range, while Vietnam were third.
The Chinese trio of Liu Zhongsheng, Zhang Penghui and Liu Guohui finished with 1,1738 points in the team event, 17 clear of second-placed Japan. Kazakhstan won the bronze.
Liu then won the individual gold with Zhang taking the silver. Vijay Kumar of India was awarded the bronze even though he finished fourth behind Guohui.
• South Korea’s Kim Hyo Mi, Hwang Sun-ok and Nam Bo-ra upstaged Malaysia to retain the Asian Games women’s trios bowling title with a record-breaking performance.
The Korean team went into the final session in the lead and posted a grand total of 3,983 pins, a new games record for a six-game series.
Kim, Hwang and Nam also set games records for a one-game and three-game series.
Women’s singles gold medalist Esther Cheah teamed up with Zandra Aziela and Shalin Zulkifli to claim the silver for Malaysia with a total of 3,973.
The bronze medal also went to South Korea with Choi Jin-a, Gang Hye-eun and Kim Yeau-jin posting a total of 3,940, a comfortable 56 pins clear of the Singaporean trio of Tan Bee Leng, Michelle Kwang Tien Mei and Valerie Teo Hui Ying.
• India retained their Asian Games kabaddi title with a 35-23 win over Pakistan yesterday. Bangladesh beat Iran to win bronze with a 37-26 victory.
• Taiwan’s Wang Chun Yen won the men’s Asian Games soft tennis title. Hidenori Shinohara of Japan took silver with South Korea’s Nam Teak Ho winning bronze.
• Defending champions China took a giant stride toward the Asian Games women’s field hockey final with a 1-0 win over their main challengers South Korea.
Captain Ma Yibo scored the winner with a penalty corner a minute before halftime as China repeated their victory over the Koreans in the final of the Busan Asiad four years ago.
India, meanwhile, defeated Malaysia 4-2 to record their second win in three matches. The Indians led 3-1 at half-time following goals by Asunta Lakra, Binita Toppo and Saba Anjum. Kannagi Arumugan and Nadia Rehman scored for Malaysia but former captain Mamta Kharb sealed India’s win by deflecting in a penalty corner two minutes before the final whistle.
