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| November 2, 2005 | Wednesday | Ramzan 28, 1426 |
East Asian Games: China’s near-perfect performance
MACAU, Nov 1: China put in a near-perfect track and field performance at the East Asian Games on Tuesday, falling just one victory short of a nine-event clean-sweep. Double gold in the men’s and women’s 100 metres along with wins in the women’s 10,000m, high jump, triple-jump, shot-put and hammer emphasised China’s dominance of the Games, which have been a one-team show from the outset.
Only Japan’s Yuki Nakamura could stem the red tide with victory in the men’s 10,000m. China also won the men’s discus as it stretched its tally of gold medals to 43 from a possible 59. No other team has made double figures.
Bespectacled student Hu Kai made a name for himself with victory in the day’s blue riband event, the men’s 100m, despite clocking a relatively slow 10.40 seconds.
Hu, an economics student at Tsinghua University, shrugged off a pair of false starts as he powered to the front from 30 metres and finished two metres ahead of Japan’s Shingo Kawabata.
“The false starts helped me because it enabled me to find my rhythm out of the blocks,” said Hu, nicknamed ‘Flying Spectacles Man’ by Chinese media after his silver medal at the National Games.
“The time wasn’t important. I just wanted to win the gold medal,” said Hu, 23.
Qin Wangping won the women’s 100m in another slow time, 11.65, complaining of tiredness after last month’s National Games where she won both the 100m and 200m.
Another Chinese, Shu Yan, was second in 11.76 and Ayumi Suzuki of Japan clocked 11.95 for third.
“There were no heats, just the final so that may have affected my time, and I’ve just been in the National Games so that may have affected my performance,” said Qin.
World champion Liu Xia jerked a Games-record 133kg on her way to gold in the women’s 63kg as China remained unbeaten in the weightlifting.
Meanwhile Jiang Lishuang won the women’s 10m platform diving and Xu Hao and Chen Jiaming took the 3m synchronised springboard.
China has swept all but one of the opening eight diving events and Olympic champions Guo Jingjing and Li Ting will compete in the women’s 3m synchronised springboard later.
Earlier, Bao Guiying won the women’s 10,000m to kickstart China’s athletics campaign.
Bao, understudy to Olympic champion Xing Huina who is running in the 5,000m, burst up the final straight to clock 32 minutes, 35.07 seconds, beating Hiromi Ominami of Japan by one-and-a-half seconds.
North Korean bronze medallist Paek Hyan-gok crossed the line more than two minutes later in 34:53.06.
In the women’s shot put, Li Meiju’s opening throw of 18.12 metres was enough for victory, despite falling well below her personal best of 19.05.
Jing Xuezhu edged team-mate Zhen Xingjuan in the women’s high jump with a superior faults record after both jumped 1.85m.
Wu Tao hurled the discus 61.74m to win the men’s competition ahead of compatriot Tulake Nuermaimaiti’s 59.27m, and Zhang Wenxiu won the women’s hammer with a throw of 72.23 metres.
China has brought its biggest ever squad, including 11 Athens Olympics gold-medallists and a host of younger talent, as it bids to top the medals table at the next Olympics in Beijing.
About 1,900 athletes are competing for 234 gold medals in 17 sports at the fourth East Asian Games, the biggest tournament ever held in this autonomous southern Chinese territory.—AFP
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