INCHEON: China’s swimmers flexed their muscle at the Asian Games yesterday with explosive gold medal displays from Olympic champions Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen.
Anchor Ning Zetao’s supersonic 46.91 seconds -- world record speed -- gave China a nail-biting victory over fierce rivals Japan in the men’s 4x100m medley relay, capping a thrilling six days of competition in the pool.
After scooping four more titles on the final day, China finished with a total of 22 gold medals overall, to Japan’s 12. The Japanese won the battle for male supremacy, edging China 8-7 in golds but the invincible Chinese women’s team won 15 out of 19 events to maintain their Asian Games dominance.
World record holder Sun defended his 1,500 metres freestyle title with plenty left in the tank, powering to victory in 14 minutes, 49.75 seconds to give the hulking superstar a third gold of the week.
South Korea’s Park Tae-Hwan finished out of the medals, leaving the local hero winless in his four individual events. Sun brought a smile to his face by presenting him with a cake ahead of his 25th birthday on Saturday to show there were no hard feelings.
Park returned to pick up a bronze in the men’s 4x100m medley relay, giving him a 20th Asian Games medal and making him the most decorated South Korean ever at the quadrennial multisport event. Sun showed his fun-loving side after the racing was done, bringing out a strawberry-covered cake for Park and smearing cream over his face as the crowd squealed in delight.
As predicted, Ye stormed to the the individual medley double, clocking a Games record of 2:08.94 to win the 200m and emulate her success in Guangzhou four years ago.
Kazakh Dmitriy Balandin completed a sensational breaststroke treble by winning the 50m in a Games record 27.78 after winning the 100 and 200m -- the first swim titles for the former Soviet republic at the Games.AFP
