China retains commanding lead in Asian Games<\/p>\n
HIROSHIMA, Japan (Reuter): After only two days China has
\nalready swept to a commanding lead in the Asian Games thanks to
\nrecord-breaking performances by its weightlifters and swimmers.<\/p>\n
China's women weightlifters added six more world records
\nyesterday to the eight they set on Monday, while in the swimming
\npool China won all five gold medals to go with three they
\ncollected in yesterday's first day of serious competition.<\/p>\n
The day ended with China on 20 gold medals with Japan falling
\nbehind on eight and Iran moving into third place with a single
\ngold in karate.<\/p>\n
The president of the International Weightlifting Federation
\nmoved swiftly to head off any accusations that drugs might be
\ninvolved telling Reuters the Chinese athletes received a clean
\nbill of health in tests two months ago and would be tested again
\nat the end of this month.<\/p>\n
The pocket Venus athletes won all six weightlifting gold
\nmedals, lifting nearly twice their own weight and leaving their
\nopponents trailing by more than 10 kg (25 pounds).<\/p>\n
Chinese weightlifting coach Tao Jiang revealed that, like
\nathletics counterpart Ma Junren and swimming coach Chen Yunpeng
\n-- he also has a secret herbal formula to bolster the hard work
\nregime he imposes.<\/p>\n
All the world record breakers so far are lifters under 20
\nyears of old and some of them have been training since they were
\n12 years old.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the Games only hours after China's lifters set
\ntheir last world record, IWF president Gottfried Schodl admitted
\nhe was worried about drugs in the sport.<\/p>\n
\"I am really worried about drugs,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Schodl said much of the suspicion against China was due to
\nenvy and doubted if Beijing could have developed anything which
\nwas not known to the rest of the world.<\/p>\n
Schodl said among reasons why the Chinese have achieved
\nspectacular success in the sport was that they had naturally
\nwell-developed calves and thighs which bear the brunt of the lift
\nin both the snatch and the clean and jerk.<\/p>\n
In swimming China took all five golds, two silvers and a
\nbronze in a systematic demolition of the disheartened opposition.
\nOnly Japan, with a haul of two silvers and three bronzes, could
\nraise a smile at the end of the day, while Thailand was ecstatic
\nwith a shock silver and South Korea was consoled with a lone
\nbronze.<\/p>\n
The Chinese broke Asian Games records in every race on the
\nagenda and swimmer after swimmer made it clear that the
\njuggernaut would not stop before the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.<\/p>\n
Karate<\/p>\n
The third full day competition also saw Iran and Syria joined
\nthe medal winning club. Rafaat Salti Krad broke the Japanese
\nstranglehold in karate when he won a closely contested 65kg final
\nagainst Arash Javanshir of Iran. Syria now have four gold medals
\nin 40 years of Asian Games.<\/p>\n
Maziar Farid Khomami earned a consolation gold for Iran by
\nbeating Adel al-Mejadi of Kuwait 4-3 in the 70kg final.
\nNatalia Chikina won Kazakhstan's first Asian Games medal, a
\nbronze, in the 10m platform.<\/p>\n
Also yesterday, China's flamboyant coach Ma Junren arrived at
\nthe Asian Games, setting off a media frenzy around the man behind
\nworld-record performances by China's women middle distance
\nrunners.<\/p>\n
Accompanied by cases of his secret elixir of turtle blood and
\nother mystery ingredients, the leader of \"Ma's Army\" behaved in a
\nway befitting a conquering hero.<\/p>\n
He graciously accepted bouquets of flowers thrust into his
\nhands through a scrimmage of journalists at Hiroshima airport but
\nstill found time to courteously escort his women runners to their
\nseats in a bus.<\/p>",
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