Everyone knew China would dominate the Doha Asian Games, but few
knew they could do in such an extreme way.
They swept 16 out of 20 gold medals on offer on the first day's
official competition on Saturday, getting off to flying start
towards its seventh consecutive feat of topping the medal tally
since 1982.
Japan took three golds, including two from their traditional
territory of judo and one from the swimming pool. Judokas Sae
Nakazawa won the women's 78kg class while Muneta clinched men's
over 100kg title.
Their other gold medal was from swimmer Sano Hidemasa in the
men's 400m individual medley.
South Korea, fighting for the second place against Japan at the
Games, managed only one from Jang Sung Ho, who claimed the men's
100kg judo title.
China claimed its first gold medal in the men's 10m air rifle
team event early Saturday morning. Olympic champion Zhu Qinan, Li
Jie and Liu Tianyou beat South Korea with 1,786 points to win the
Games' first gold.
"It's a great start for the Chinese delegation," said Duan
Shijie, deputy chef de mission of the Chinese delegation. "This
gold is a perfect morale-boost for our fellow Chinese athletes to
compete in this Games."
Little-known Liu Tianyou emerged as the hero of the defending
Asian Games champions as the 24-year-old scored the highest 598
points.
Three Chinese shooters became double winners as China went on to
clean-sweep all the day's six shooting gold medals.
Liu won his second in the men's 10m air rifle by collecting
700.8 points.
China's trap team, including Chen Li, Wang Yujin and Zhu Mei,
beat DPR Korea to clinch the trap team event. Chen then added the
women's trap gold to her team title.
Olympic champion Du Li grabbed the women's 10m air rifle
individual gold before leading the Chinese trio, also consisting of
Zhao Yinghui and Wu Liuxi, to win the women's rifle team title.
China's sweetest title came from the men's gymnastics team
event. They overcame a 1.500-point deficit before the last rotation
to beat Olympic champions Japan with 377.100 points, extending
their men's team dominance for the ninth successive time at the
Asian Games history.
Japan scored 4.050 points to finish second and South Korea
totaled 371.500 to settle for the third. South Korean Yang Tae
Young suffered a foot injury over landing of high bar, but he
struggled to take the pommel horse and earned his team a
bronze.
China took away all three weightlifting gold medals in the
women's 48kg, 53rd classes and men's 56kg category. They also ruled
the swimming pool, seizing five out of six gold medals to leave the
remaining one to Japan.
World bronze medalist Wu Peng struck a brilliant victory to
retain the men's 200m butterfly title under the pressure of two
strong Japanese rivals.
Zhou Yafei and Pang Jiaying each had two gold medals to their
names when defending champion Zhou won the women's 100m butterfly
in 58.39 after Pang beat defending champion and teammate Yang Yu
for the women's 200m freestyle gold in 1:59.26.
In the last event later Saturday night, the two rallied with Luo
Nan (breaststroke) and Zhao Jing (backstroke) to bring in another
gold for China in the 4x100m medley relay.
Asian champion Ji Liping of China took the first ever 50m
breaststroke gold and set the Games record in 31.52. The 50m
breaststroke was added to the Asian Games program for the first
time.
In judo action, Tong Wen was the only Chinese winner, beating
Tserenkhand Dorjgotov of Mongolia with ippon to take the women's
over 78kg title.
A total of 28 gold medals will be decided on the second day's
competition on Sunday.
(Xinhua News Agency December 3, 2006)