BUSAN (South Korea), Oct 1: North Korea claimed their first gold of the 14th Asian Games Tuesday while South Korea upset Thailand in the ancient sport of sepak takraw and China set an Asian record in swimming.

The 23-year-old Ri Song Hui was the North’s hero, winning gold in the women’s 53 kilogramme category of the snatch and the clean and jerk discipline and bettering the world record set by China’s Yan Xia in the 2000 Olympics.

The North Korean lifted a combined weight of 225 kilogrammes — 12.5 kilogrammes more than silver medalist Udompor Polsak from Thailand.

South Korea caused a sensation in Southeast Asian circles by winning its first ever gold in men’s “bulatan”, or circle, final of sepak takraw.

An appeal by the Thai team manger Nipho Siriarporntham to review the result was turned down.

The South Korean team led by Kim Jong Hun scored a total of 5781 points over the three sets. They beat Thailand by 58 points. Myanmar and Japan also contested the finals and took the bronze with 4431 and 3883 points respectively.

But it was not all doom and glom for Thailand as the women’s bulutan team won the country’s first gold. They scored 5198 points over three sets. Myanmar took the silver with 4431 points and Korea and Vietnam earned bronze.

Sepak takraw is an ancient sport played in two forms, “bulatan” and “regu”. Bulatan is played by five players in a circle with points awarded for keeping the coconut-sized wicker ball in the air using mainly the feet and heads, but not the hands.

Japan’s swimmers, who dominated Monday, grabbed two golds Tuesday, but it was Chinese who set the trend. Japan’s Yoshihiro Okumura set an Asiad record on in the heats of the men’s 200 metres freestyle with a time of 1:50.48. He bettered this time in the final, but China’s Liu Yu set the pace and grabbed gold with a time of 1:49.29.

Miya Tachibana grabbed Japan’s seventh gold medal when she won the synchronised swimming solo free routine.

But the excitement in swimming came in the women’s 100 metres breaststroke when China’s Luo Xuejuan bettered her own Asian record with a time of 1:06.84. Her old record was 1:06.96.

South Korea earned its second gold of the day when it defeated Taiwan 33-21 in the seven-a-side rugby final, running in five tries to Taiwan’s three. Thailand narrowly earned rugby’s bronze by defeating Japan 17-14.—dpa