Bodybuilding helps S. Korea catch Japan in medals race

Bodybuilding helps S. Korea catch Japan in medals race

Phil Brown, Associated Press, Busan, South Korea

Cho Wang-bung and Han Dong-ki showed off their muscles and
collected Asian Games gold medals on Saturday, helping South
Korea overtake Japan for second place behind runaway leader
China.

The two Koreans, in the 60- and 70-kilogram divisions, were
the first winners in bodybuilding, making its games debut.
Vietnam's Duc Ly and Bahrain's Tariq Alfarsani won later at 80
and 90 kilograms, giving Bahrain its first gold of these games.

Indonesia also won its first gold here, beating Japan 2-1 in
women's team tennis when Wynne Adiati Prakusya and Angelique
Widjaja defeated Saori Obata and Miho Saeki 6-4, 6-0 in the
deciding doubles.

Shooters gave host South Korea three golds and gymnasts added
one, lifting its total to 28 - ahead of Japan's 26 but far behind
China's 81.

China's big haul for the day was six golds in gymnastics.

Japan gained one gold from gymnastics and one when cyclists
Yuichiro Kamiyama, Harutomo Watanabe and Takashi Kaneko won the
men's team sprint in 1 minute, 00.927 seconds. South Korea won
silver in 1:01.846.

Meanwhile, Japan advanced to the gold medal game in softball
by trouncing Taiwan 10-0 in a game shortened to six innings
because of the 10-run margin. It now awaits the winner of a game
between Taiwan and China, an 8-1 winner over North Korea on
Saturday.

Neither Japan nor South Korea expects to catch China in the
overall medals race, but the contest for second is intense. In
the 1998 games, the Koreans beat Japan with 65 golds to 52 behind
China's 129.

China beat South Korea for the team gold medal in men's table
tennis, after North Korea upset the Chinese for the women's team
gold Friday night. China has won 13 world championships in
women's team play.

It added one gold each in billiards, cycling and shooting.

Two of China's six gymnastics golds for the day came when Li
Xiaopeng and Huang Xu tied at 9.800 on the parallel bars. Li also
won the vault, ahead of all-around gold medalist Yang Wei of
China.

On the horizontal bar, a late change in the judges' scores
lifted Teng Haibin into a gold-medal tie with Japan's Hiroyuki
Tomita and Yang Tae-seok.

China's Kang Xin won on the balance beam and Zhang Nan shared
victory in the floor exercises with Oksana Chusovitina, a
27-year-old mother from Uzbekistan. Chusovitina won silver on the
balance beam.

In shooting, after winning 17 of the first 20 gold medals,
China slowed its pace. It won in women's double trap team
shooting, while Kazakhstan's Sergey Belyaev beat Turkmenistan's
Igor Pirekeev 10.7-10.4 in a shootoff for the gold in the men's
50-meter prone rifle event.

For South Korea's three shooting golds, Lee Sang-hee won the
women's double trap individual event and her male compatriots won
two team events - prone rifle and double trap.

Taiwan's Chen Shih-wei won the men's individual double trap
title in a shootoff after he tied with compatriot Shih Wei-tin
and South Korea's Jung Yoon-kyun at 187. Shih won the silver in
another shootoff.

In the Southeast Asian sport of sepak takraw, Malaysia beat
South Korea and advanced to the men's team gold medal match
against Thailand. In women's competition, Thailand and Vietnam
advanced to the final. Thailand beat China and Vietnam defeated
South Korea in semifinals.

China won its cycling gold from Zhao Haijuan's victory in the
women's 3-kilometer individual pursuit.

Kazakhstan's Vadim Kravchenko won the men's 4-kilometer
version of that race.