China dominates athletic c'ships with six golds<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): China's new faces lived up to their
\npredecessors' status as the strongest team on the continent
\nyesterday, scooping six gold medals on the second day of the 11th
\nAsian Track and Field Championships.<\/p>\n
South Korea and India each took a gold apiece.<\/p>\n
In an apparent justification of their long-time supremacy,
\nChinese runners seized both the continent's fastest man and woman
\ntags, although they failed to beat the old marks.<\/p>\n
Lin Wei, making his debut in the championships, ran 10.34
\nseconds to win the men's 100-meter. Cui Danfeng took the women's
\nsprint in 11.36, though she fell short of the new meet record of
\n11.28 she set in the heat race on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Two more meet records were shattered yesterday, taking the
\ntally to four after the second day of the Sept. 20-24 meet. Li
\nMingcai broke the men's 20km walk in 1:23:58.80, shaving two
\nminutes and 30.89 off his senior Chen Sauguo's four-year-old
\nmark. Geng Huang produced the second new record of the day when
\nhe leapt his personal best of 8.26 meters to win the long jump.<\/p>\n
It was Wang Junxia, however, who starred in yesterday's golden
\nspree. Without the magic of turtle blood, the world record holder
\nstood head and shoulders above her minnow contenders to retain
\nher 10,000m crown.<\/p>\n
Despite her convincing victory, Wang looked a little bit
\nslower than usual, clocking an under-par time of 33:58.50. Wang
\nset her personal best of 29:31.78 as a member of Ma's Army Family
\nin the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart, becoming the first
\nwoman to run under 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
\"I have not consumed turtle blood for quite a long time, but
\nit is not the reason why I ran slower,\" Wang said through her
\ninterpreter. \"I simply lack competitors,\" she added.<\/p>\n
The women's 10,000m race, the final event of the day, ended
\nIndonesia's wait for Asian championships medal. Tri Asih
\nHandayani, or Henny Melon, as her close mates call her, finished
\na distant second with 35:45.07, ahead of Maysa Matrood of Iraq.<\/p>\n
Only four women ran in the long-distance race, with host
\nIndonesia fielding its two best runners. The Indonesian team left
\nempty-handed at two previous meets in Kuala Lumpur and Manila.<\/p>\n
The 100m final lost its dazzle after Asian record holder Talal
\nMansoor retired. To make it worse, Asian Games silver medalist
\nVitaly Savin of Kazakhstan and bronze medalist Chen Wenzhong of
\nChina failed to qualify for the final.<\/p>\n
\"Chen has been suffering from a back injury,\" Wei said of his
\nsenior's lackluster time of 14.63 in Wednesday's heat race.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's best sprinter Mardi Lestari also failed to make it
\nto the final, blaming poor stamina for his semifinal defeat
\nyesterday.<\/p>\n
India put itself among the gold medal winning countries,
\nthanks to Jyotirmoy Sikdar's triumph in the women's 800m. Sikdar
\nburst to 2:06.75, nearly two and a half seconds away from the
\nmeet record set by her fellow Indian Shiny Abraham (now Shiny
\nWilson) 10 years ago. Wilson finished only third behind Kumiko
\nOkamoto of Japan.<\/p>\n
In the men's 800m, South Korea's Kim Yong-hwan upset pre-race
\nfavorite and Asian 1,500 record holder Mohammad Sulaeman of Qatar
\nby just nine hundredth of a second. Kim clocked 1:49.94 to win
\nthe gold, but he ran more than two seconds off the meet record
\nset by Malaysian Batu Rajkumar. (amd)<\/p>",
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