DPR Korea, long-time bridesmaid in world table tennis, upstaged
13-time world champions China led by world top two players in the
women's team final in Ulsan on Friday night, pulling off an upset
victory that will go down in both Asian Games and table tennis
history.
It
reminds the 1991 world table tennis championships, in which a
united team of two Koreas stopped China's winning streak in the
women's team event.
But this time, DPR Korea made it alone - and on South Korean
soil.
In
DPR Korea's first ever appearance in a multi-sport event held in
South Korea, its players repaid a zealous crowd with a crisp 3-1
win over the Chinese team led by world top ranked Wang Nan and No.
2 Zhang Yining
Kim Hyang-mi crushed Olympic and world champ Wang Nan 3-0 after
Zhang downed Kim Hyon-hui in the opening game. Kim Yun-mi edged out
Chinese youngster Li Nan 3-2 and Kim Hyon-hui wrapped up their
victory with a 3-1 beating of Wang Nan.
Japan and Singapore finished joint third.
China had to look for good news elsewhere.
Chinese swimmer Xu Yanwei became the first quadruple gold medalist
of the games, securing a nearly insurmountable 16-11 lead of China
over Japan in the swimming pool.
With China running away with 71 golds, South Korea, vowing to
retain its runner-up slot in overall medal race, rounded up nine
golds on the sixth day of action, cutting Japan's overnight
5-goldedge to two.
Two world records were created as China bettered a 13-year-old
world standard in the women's sport pistol and Kazakhstan's Sergey
Filimonov smashed another in weightlifting.
Xu
Yanmei, 18, added the women's 50m freestyle gold to her 100
freestyle and two relay titles. China's 3-2 win over Japan Friday
night has virtually spoilt Japan's hope to beat the arch rival in
the 34-event Asiad swimming, with the last five golds to be
contested on Saturday.
Chinese Wu Peng, 15, won the men's 400m individual medley and his
teammate Yu Cheng took the men's 1,500m freestyle.
Japan lifted two golds from the 4x100m medley relay gold and Reiko
Nakamura's women's 200m backstroke.
China broke a world record and won the team title in the women's
25m sport pistol in the shooting range.
Tao Luna and Li Duihong, Olympic champion in 2000 and 1996
respectively, combined with Chen Ying to score a new world record
total of 1,768 points.
The previous world record of 1,764 was set by the former Soviet
Union team of Lolita Tsvetkova, Nono Salukvadeze and Svetlana
Smirnova in the 1989 European championships.
China also won the men's 10m running target team and individual
events and women's sport pistol individual gold. Kazakhstan's Olga
Dovgun took the women's 50m rifle prone individual gold and South
Korea got the team title.
Kazakhstan's weightlifter Sergey Filimonov broke a world record in
the snatch and went on to win the men's 77kg division.
China's Li Hongli matched Filimonov's lift of 173kg in the snatch
but then missed all three tries at 197.5 in the clean and jerk. The
two Asian lifters broke the mark of 172.5 set by Plamen Zhelyazkov
of Bulgaria in March.
Eight golds were awarded in five gymnastics events.
Chinese Teng Haibin and DPR Korea's Kim Hyon-il split the pommel
horse golds and Chinese Huang Xu and South Korean Kim Dong-hwa
finished joint first in rings.
Chinese Zhang Nan and DPR Korean Han Jong-ok shared the top of
podium in uneven bars.
The men's floor exercise title went to South Korean Kim Seung-il
and Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan landed the women's vault top
honor.
South Korea swept both the men's sabre team and women's epee
golds.
In
wrestling, South Korea won two golds with China and Uzbekistan
taking one each.
Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines joined the gold tally on
Friday.
Malaysia won the men's squash and women's bowling doubles and
Vietnam struck its first gold in billiards. The Philippines lifted
the men's doubles bowling gold.
On
the medal tally topped by China, Japan placed second with 24golds,
followed by South Korea in 22, DPR Korea and Kazakhstan, both in
six.
(
October 5, 2002)