August 25, 2008	Monday	Sha'aban 22, 1429

BEIJING, Aug 24: Asian nations enjoyed a successful Beijing Olympics by bagging a hatful of medals, led by regional powerhouse China, but the achievements were soured by two positive drug tests.

Nineteen Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) nations fought their way onto the medal table, collecting 85 gold, 54 silver and 72 bronze between them.

As expected, the lion’s share went to China (51-21-28), with South Korea (13-10-8) ahead of their traditional rivals Japan (9-6-10).

One of the biggest breakthroughs was achieved by Singapore which won its first medal in 48 years, while Malaysia took home a silver.

Rohullah Nikpai won Afghanistan its first medal ever, a bronze in taekwondo, which brought joy to his homeland with President Hamid Karzai reportedly promising him a house.

Another big break was achieved by India, which collected its maiden individual gold through shooter Abhinav Bindra.

Indonesia snagged a gold, a silver and three bronze and Thailand won two gold and two silver. Even Vietnam (men’s weightlifting) won a silver. Taiwan, Mongolia, Iran, North Korea, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, also tasted Olympic success, but Hong Kong failed to make its mark.

A rampant China had its best-ever performance, booting the United States from the top of the gold medal table for the first time to ram home their sporting superiority.

While Chinese athletes predictably collected titles in diving, table tennis, badminton, and women’s weightlifting, it also crashed the party in non-traditional sports like archery, fencing, windsurfing and beach volleyball.

Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima and China’s Liu Zige put Asia firmly on the world swimming map when they, briefly, stole the spotlight from Michael Phelps with scintillating performances in the pool.

Breaststroke king Kitajima posted an unprecedented 100m/200m double for the second Olympics in a row, establishing himself as one of the world’s greatest ever.

“I wasn’t thinking about winning two gold medals at the two consecutive Olympic Games,” Kitajima said. “What I wanted to do is show my best performance here in Beijing.

Hosts China took a leaf out of Kitajima’s book with Liu Zige and Jiao Liuyang shocking the swimming community by winning gold and silver in the women’s 200 metres butterfly.

It was a remarkable achievement given they had done little before, with Liu clocking two minutes 04.18 seconds to shave over a second off the previous world record held by Australian Jessicah Schipper.

Weightlifting is an Asian stronghold and it showed.

China won four men’s and four women’s titles with Thailand’s Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon (53kg) and North Korean Pak Hyon-Suk (63kg) the only non-Chinese women gold medallists.

“The central government of China places great importance on this sport. The attention given to weightlifting is unprecedented,” said International Weightlifting Federation chief Tamas Ajan.

India celebrated its first ever individual Olympic gold when Bindra, a 25-year-old businessman, won the men’s 10m Air Rifle shooting, prompting tributes from President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“For me life will go on. But I sincerely hope this win will change the face of Olympic sport in India,” said Bindra.

Badminton and table tennis are Asian domains but while China dominated, Singapore and Malaysia got in on the act.

Singapore took silver in the women’s team event for their first medal of any kind since the Rome Olympics in 1948, while Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei clinched a rare silver for his country in the men’s badminton singles.

While the achievements were well deserved, two positive drug tests put a dampener on Asian efforts.

North Korean shooter Kim Jong-Su, 31, won silver and bronze but was stripped of the medals after testing positive for banned beta-blocker drugs.

Vietnamese gymnast Do Thi Ngan Thuong tested positive to the banned diuretic furosemide.—AFP