Chinese teenagers Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen emerged as gold hopefuls for the London Olympic Games as the Asian Games swimming competition wound down on Thursday and the host's overall gold medal haul reached 109.
Sun Yang of China celebrates after the men's 1500m freestyle final at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 18, 2010. Sun Yang claimed the title with 14 minutes and 35.43 seconds and broke the Asian records. [Xinhua/Chen Jianli]
Chinese teenagers Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen emerged as gold hopefuls for the London Olympic Games as the Asian Games swimming competition wound down on Thursday and the host's overall gold medal haul reached 109.
China won 12 golds on Day Six, including two in the pool, and is on track to surpassing the record of 183 they set in the 1990 Beijing Asian Games. South Korea was second in the medal table with 37 golds and Japan was third with 21.
The 18-year-old Sun, beaten into second place in the men's 200m and 400m freestyle events by Olympic champion Park Tae-hwan, finally outshone the South Korean super star over 1,500m, dominated the longest event in 14:35.43, breaking teammate Zhang Lin's Asian record by 10.41 seconds.
The time was only 0.87 seconds behind the world record of 14:34.56 set by Australian Grant Hackett in July 2001.
Park finished second in 15:01.72 and ended his second Asiad trip with seven medals including three golds. China's 800m world champion Zhang was third in 15:22.03
"I thought Hackett's world record was too far away from me, but now it's so close," Sun said. "But I have not thought about breaking the record. I will start from the very beginning tomorrow and work hard for next year's world championships and the London Olympics."
Ye Shiwen of China swims in the women's 200 meters individual medley final at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, on Thursday, November 18, 2010. Ye eased to victory in 2:09.37. [Photo: chinanews.com]
China claimed all but two women's gold medals in the pool after six day's competition with 14-year-old Ye winning two to prompt speculation that she will make a big splash in the 2012 London Olympics.
Ye eased to victory in the women's 200 meters individual medley in 2:09.37, adding to the 400m individual medley title she won on Sunday.
"My goal in the coming two years is to win in the London Olympic Games," Ye said.
Tao Li of Singapore won the women's 50m butterfly title to become the only swimmer from outside of "three giants" - China, South Korea and Japan - to win a swimming gold.
Japan was the biggest winner in the last day, with Naoya Tomita winning the men's 200m breaststroke in the absence of Kosuke Kitajima and Junya Koga prevailing in the 50m backstroke. They also won the men's 4x100meter medley relay after China, who touched first, was disqualified.
Japan and China each won 16 gold swimming golds four years ago in Doha. But China completely ruled the pool this time with 24 golds. Japan took only nine and none of them were from their women. South Korea got four and Singapore had one.
Thailand, Indonesia and Jordan became the new members to win a gold medal, increasing the number of gold-winning delegations to 17.
Nabil Hassan of Jordan defeated Nesar Ahmad Bahawi of Afghanistan to win the men's 80kg taekwondo gold medal. Thailand's Sarita Phongsri beat Vietnam's Thi Hoai Thu Nguyen to win the women's under 53kg taekwondo title. The Indonesian team tasted their first gold in the dragon boat 1,000m straight event.
South Korea swept both gold medals in the opening day's fencing action, with Kim Hye-rim winning the women's individual sabre and Kim Won Jin taking the men's individual epee.
In rowing, China bagged six out of seven titles and Japan got one.
Shooting also closed its action on Thursday, when South Korea's remarkable run continued by winning three of four events, taking their tally to 13 golds, only two behind China.
In weightlifting, Kazakhstan stole the limelight as two lifters claimed gold medals to break China's monopoly on weightlifting.
Twice world champion and world record holder Podobedova Svetlana clinched the gold of women's 75kg with a considerable margin of 22kg from the second-placed Olympic champion Cao Lei of China and reigning champion Ilyin Ilya took the gold of men's 94kg by snatching 175kg and jerking 219kg for a winning total of 394kg.
In soccer, Chinese women followed the men's suit, losing to South Korea 8-7 on penalties after the two sides were deadlocked at 0-0 in 90 minutes in a Group A game.
But the Chinese women, nicknamed "Steel Roses" for finishing second in the 1996 and 1999 World Cup, were luckier than their male counterparts and they still entered the semifinals as the second placer in the group.
In basketball, all the three matches of the first day on Thursday were won with big margins and one of them set the record of the biggest winning margin in the history of the women's basketball at the Asian Games.
Chinese Taipei crushed Maldives 127-23, beating the previous record set by China which defeated Lebanon 106-30 at the Doha Asian Games in 2006.
