Chinese gymnast Yang Wei became the most titled athlete in the
15th Asian Games after taking his fourth gold
medal from the parallel bars on Wednesday, when China won 17 more
gold medals to make it 76 in total.
Yang, triple-winner at last October's world championships in
Aarhus, Denmark, shared the parallel bars title with South Korean
Kim Dae Eun on 16.300 points, adding to his three gold medals won
in the team, all-around and rings events.
The 26-year-old, who made his Asian Games debut in the 1998
Bangkok Games, thus tied Chinese legend Li Ning's eight golds as
the most prolific male gymnast in the Asiad history.
Cheng Fei, also a triple gold medal winner at the Aarhus Worlds,
claimed her third Doha gold winning the floor event with ease,
following top honors in the team and vault competitions.
China's gymnastics glory continued, winning three golds and
three silvers from the day's five apparatus finals. Veteran Zhang
Nan continued her dominance on the beam to grab the
balance-oriented title.
Zhang's gold was China's ninth gymnastics title in Doha and the
100th her team has won since making their Asian Games debut in
1974.
North Korea captured a gymnastics gold through Ri Se Gwang, who
proved best in the men's vault. Japanese Hisashi Mizutori went away
with the men's horizontal title.
The swimming pool witnessed another victory for Chinese triple
gold medalist. Xu Yanwei who won the women's 100m freestyle to add
her third gold to the 50m free and the 4x100m freestyle relay.
Arch-rivals China and Japan squared off once more, seizing three
out of the six swimming gold medals on offer.
Chen Zuo powered to defend the men's 100m free in an Asian
record time, returning to winning ways after settling for two
silver medals in the 4x100m and 4x200m free relays where Japan
claimed golds in both events.
In women's 200m breaststroke, former world record holder Qi Hui
stormed to finish in 2:23.93 as the Athens Olympic Games
sixth-place finisher took her second title in her favorite event to
add to her 400m individual medley gold.
Japanese Hidemasa Sano overcame compatriot and Asian record
holder Ken Takakuwa for the men's 200m individual medley gold and
Reiko Nakamura triumphed in the women's 100m backstroke.
In the final event of the day,, Yurie Yano beat China's 400m
free champion Yang Jieqiao for the 800m free title.
Weightlifters ended their Asian Games competition on Wednesday,
with China winning one of the last three golds through Mu
Shuangshuang in the women's over 75kg category. The other two golds
went to Iran's Hossein Reza Zadeh and Syria's Ahed Joughili in the
men's over 105kg category.
Chinese sharpshooters marched on by grabbing five gold medals in
all five events on Wednesday. On the overall gold rankings, China
is leading with 24. The shooting competition will conclude on
Friday with 10 more gold medals at stake.
China qualified for the knock-out stage after beating Oman 2-1
in a bad-tempered men's soccer match. Oman, who needed to beat
China by a big margin, saw their slim hopes fade after having two
players sent off. Earlier in the day, Japan was shut out of the
quarterfinals after losing 2-1 to North Korea.
China and Japan both made the last eight in the men's basketball
event. NBA prospect Yi Jianlian had 28 points and nine rebounds in
under 23 minutes to help China overcome Chinese Taipei 101-65.
Japan claimed its third win in a row by defeating Uzbekistan 75-56
to share a 3-0 record with China in Group B.
The day saw two big names suffer heartbreaking blows. Thai
tennis star Paradorn Srichaphan pulled out of the men's singles
event due to a wrist injury and China's table tennis star Wang Nan
was upset in her semifinal clash by Tie Yana of Hong Kong.
However, Chinese table tennis coaches found some relief as China
struck gold in the women's doubles event. China also secured the
men's singles title as Ma Lin and Wang Hao have set up an
all-Chinese final.
After the fifth day of competition, a total of 19 countries and
regions have won gold medals. China leads the medal table with 76
golds, followed by Japan with 22 and South Korea with 15.
Kazakhstan is fourth with 10.
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(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2006)
