BUSAN, Oct 2: China confirmed their position as the undisputed superpower of regional rowing after winning all six gold medals on the first days of finals at the Asian Games Wednesday.
The six wins now mean that since rowing was introduced into the Games in New Delhi in 1982, China has won 51 of the 53 gold medals contested.
In Bangkok four years ago, the Chinese won all 11 and they were in awesome form straightaway on Wednesday when 23-year-old Zhu Zhifu won the men’s lightweight single sculls beating Japanese rival Hitoshi Hase by almost four seconds.
Meanwhile, Muhammad Akram earned a single sculls bronze for Pakistan with a time of 8:40.57. Cui Yonghui finished over 12 seconds ahead of Hong Kong’s Law Hiu Fung in a time of 8:19.40 to take gold.
Akram, however, finished sixth, clocking 7:37.59 in the lightweight single sculls.
Pakistani quartet of Allah Rakha, Romay Khan, Naseer Tahir, Muhammad Sultan also settled at sixth place with a time of 7:26.22 in the coxless fours event.
MEN’S
LIGHTWEIGHT SINGLE SCULLS
1. Zhu Zhifu (Chn) 7min 12.55sec
2. Hitoshi Hase (Jpn) 7:16.53
3. Law Hiu-fung (Hkg) 7:24.05
4. Jose Rodriguez (Phi) 7:26.13
5. Jamaluddin Jamaluddin (Ind) 7:27.80
6. Muhammad Akram (Pak) 7:37.59
SINGLE SCULLS
1. Cui Yonghui (Chn) 8:19.40
2. Law Hiu-fung (Hkg) 8:31.48
3. Muhammad Akram (Pak) 8:40.57
4. Bejamin Tolentino (Phi) 8:46.61
5. Lee Gang-Wook (Kor) 8:56.49
6. Yasunori Tanabe (Jpn) 9:27.63
COXLESS FOURS
1. China (Wang Bo/Chen Zheng/Chi Huanqi/Sun Jian) 6:46.25
2. Uzbekistan (Nasrulo Nazaron/Bahadir Davletyaron/ Ruslan
Bichurin/Vladimir Tremasov) 6:58.79
3. India (Inder Pal Singh/Jenil Krishnan/PT Paulose/Roshnan Lal) 7:02.91
4. South Korea (Kim Jeung-Wook/Woo Jae-Moon/Im Won-Hyuk/Lee Seung-Hwan) 7:06.53
5. Taiwan (Hsu Wei-Chieh/Wu Chi-Hsiu/Kung Tai-Yuan/Kao Kun-Cheng) 7:14.84
6. Pakistan (Allah Rakha/Romay Khan/Naseer Tahir/Muhammad Sultan) 7:26.22.—AFP