|
|
|
| October 14, 2002 | Monday | Sha'aban 7, 1423 |
Drugs and drama on penultimate day
BUSAN, Oct 13: A blood-inspired marathon win and an emotional triumph for Iran’s footballers dominated the penultimate day of the Asian Games here Sunday as a drug scandal rocked India’s athletics team.
With 42 more gold medals settled ahead of Monday’s last day of action, one of the most determined individual performances Sunday came from North Korean marathon runner Ham Pong-Sil.
Suffering from a stomach ache attributed to living in the famine-ravaged Stalinist state, Ham was driven to the finish line by a blood-written message on her wrist from friends, and thoughts of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il.
“I could feel the Great Leader Kim Jong-Il was looking after me, and I was able to finish the race well,” she said after finishing in 2hr 33 min 35sec.
“There was a blood-written promise (to win) on my wrist from my friends.”
Her time may have been modest, but it was more than enough for Japan’s Harumi Hiroyama and Hiromi Ominami who finished second and third.
Ham later revealed the effects of living in the starving North began to take their toll near the end of the 42.2km race.
“When I got to the top of the hill at the 40km mark I felt a lot of stomach ache, but I didn’t give up,” Ham said.
“I haven’t been eating food in my country, and I think maybe I had digestive problems.”
With only the men’s marathon to be run Monday, China heads the athletics medal table with 14 gold, most of them in women’s events, after winning three of eight finals Tuesday.
Indian athletics officials spent Sunday digesting the news that women’s 1,500m gold medallist Sunita Rani had returned a positive sample following her victory in the race last Thursday.
Jagdish Tytler, chef de mission of India’s Asian Games team, said the 22-year-old runner had protested her innocence at a hearing convened by Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) officials Saturday.
Rani is reported to have tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone but Indian officials insisted they had not been told of the substance detected in her urine sample.
Tytler said only that according to the OCA “a banned substance” had been found in the athlete’s system.
Long after the morning athletics events had packed up from the Busan Main Asiad Stadium, all eyes were back on the arena Sunday evening for Iran’s football final against Japan.
Iran won the football gold medal for the fourth time when they capitalised on two defensive blunders to win 2-1.
Javad Kazemeyan and Mohsen Bayatiniya were the goalscoring stars but they had to survive a nervous last few moments when Satoshi Nakayama grabbed a late reply.
The victory meant that Iran defied the critics who claimed that without influential Ali Daei and the suspended Alireza Vahedi Nikbakht they would struggle to retain the gold they won in Bangkok in 1998.
Iran’s Croatian coach Branco Ivancovic said that he and the players were dedicating victory to Daei, who flew back to Tehran last week following the death of his father.
“It gives us all a big pleasure to dedicate this win to Ali because he is a legend in Iran and Asia,” said Ivancovic.
It was Kazemeyan, with his second goal of the Games, who broke the deadlock just three minutes into the second half when Japan’s Hikaru Mita and Takeshi Aoki, who had only just come on as a substitute, got in each other’s way.
As Aoki tried to clear, the ball fell into the path of Kazemeyan whose drive flew into the corner past Takaya Kurokawa in goal.
Two minutes later, Moharram Navidkia saw an effort come back off the foot of the post while, after 68 minutes, Kazemeyan had a rasping shot spectacularly saved.
With just three minutes left, Bayatiniya grabbed the second after another defensive mix-up had allowed him a clear shot on goal.
But Nakayama pulled one back in the 89th minute converting Daisuke Matsui’s cross to give Iran a few anxious moments.
The semifinals of the men’s badminton tournament also passed off peacefully, with Indonesian favourite Taufik Hidayat easily seeing off South Korean Shon Seung-Mo.—AFP
|
|
|
|
