BUSAN (South Korea), Oct 6: China’s Liu Chunhong broke three women’s weightlifting world records on a rain-sodden seventh day of competition at the Asian Games on Sunday that saw Japan awarded the softball gold on a walkover after a wash-out.

India also featured among the medals with their first gold in the individual golf tournament after a 20-year drought thanks to 20-year-old Shiv Kapur, while Lebanon won their first gold of the Games through Mohammed Anouti in the men’s over-90kg category.

China stretched their lead in the medal table as they added seven more golds to move onto 92, while second-placed South Korea took three more golds for a total of 32 and Japan secured two to move up to 28. Kazakhstan stay fourth with nine golds.

China’s Liu broke the 69-kg records in the snatch, clean and jerk and total in what her coach called a “perfect performance”.

Liu topped the previous snatch mark of 115 kg with a lift of 115.5 kg, then bettered the clean and jerk record of 147.5 kg by 0.5 kg. Her total of 262.5 kg was five kgs above the existing mark.

The silver went to Thailand’s Pawina Thongsuk, who tied the world snatch record and, with a total of 260 kg, eclipsed the previous 257.5 kg world mark before those records fell to Liu.

Japan were awarded their first ever softball gold after heavy rain washed out the bronze-medal semi-final between China and Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) and the championship game.

The loser of the Chinese Taipei-China game would have been assigned the bronze medal with the winner facing Japan, but because of the wash-out they were both given silvers.

Thailand captured the men’s team gold in sepak takraw regu to avenge an upset loss to South Korea earlier in the tournament.

The Thais, favourites in the 1,000-year-old Southeast Asian sport, beat Malaysia for bragging rights in an event not played widely outside the region. South Korea and Myanmar shared bronze.

Thailand’s women matched the men in taking gold and the Thais added a third title when they beat India to in English billiards doubles. Thailand now has five golds in total and has moved up to sixth in the medals table behind North Korea on six golds.

In men’s bodybuilding, South Korea’s Kang Kyung-won of South Korea took gold in the 85-kg class, while Singapore clinched two titles through Simon Chua Ling Fung (75 kg) and Abdul Halim Bin Haron (65 kg) adding to the country’s two golds in bowling.

Kazakhstan consolidated their position in fourth place in the standings with a gold in water polo after beating Japan 15-14, while Hong Kong won their third gold in the table tennis mixed doubles with a 4-3 victory over South Korea.

The Koreans redressed the balance when they overwhelmed Hong Kong 101-58 to secure their place in the semi-finals of the men’s basketball competition.

The host nation then made it two out of two as the women’s team — lifted by the World Cup anthem “Oh Pilsung Korea” — beat Japan 93-72 in a preliminary game before a partisan crowd.

Meanwhile, China and Japan resume their battle for supremacy in track and field when the athletics events begin Monday with the rivalry set to be as close as it was during the Asiad in Bangkok four years ago.

The two nations dominated the medals table in 1998 with China winning 15 golds and Japan picking up 12, a narrowing of the gap from Hiroshima in 1994 when the host nation lagged the sparkling Chinese who won the gold contest by 22 to five.

There are 45 gold medals on offer this time.

The athletics events at the Asiad Main Stadium start with the 10,000 metres and 20-km walk, long jump and javelin finals, the start of the women’s heptathlon and heats in 100, 400 and 800 metres and the 400-metres hurdles.—Reuters