China crushes opposition as Kitajima breaks record
Agence France-Presse, Busan, South Korea
China's sporting dragon roared into life at the Asian Games here Wednesday, winning a sackful of gold medals as three more world records tumbled.
Starting the day on top of the medal standings with 15 golds, China's athletes turned in a series of stunning displays to win 21 out of the 31 gold medals up for grabs on day four.
The Asian sporting superpower's day got off to a flying start, with their rowing team winning all six golds at the Nakdong River complex on the outskirts of Busan.
From that moment on it was a story of near-total Chinese domination across several sports.
Their medal haul included seven out of eight golds in shooting, first place in both weightlifting events, and four out of the six gold medals in the swimming competition.
Among the sparkling performances by Chinese athletes were world records for weightlifter Le Maosheng in the 62kg division and the three-man 50m pistol shooting team.
But the individual performance of the day came from Japanese swimmer Kosuke Kitajima, who smashed the 10-year-old 200m breaststroke world record in an extraordinary effort.
The world champion bronze medallist and 100m winner trounced the field to win by a massive 3.5 seconds and topple the 2:10.16 set by American Mike Barrowman in Barcelona in 1992.
His 2:09.97 also gave him a new Asian and Asiad record.
"A world record at these Games, in Asia, is a big, big thing for me and I just want to thank my team officials, team coaches and my teammates for encouraging me," said the shy 20-year-old.
"During the race I was not aware of the record chance but I knew I was swimming well. I swam well in the first 50m so it was really easy to keep the momentum going.
"Before the race my coach told me not to worry about the timing but just try to swim well in the first 50 metres. I just hope I can maintain this type of form next season as well."
Yet Kitajima's heroics were not enough to stop China from tightening their grip on the battle for swimming supremacy.
China have 10 swimming golds to Japan's six. Six more golds will be decided Thursday with world record holder Qi Hui going in her favoured event, the 200m breaststroke.
In the weightlifting competition China scored a double victory, with Le taking full advantage of a spectacular failure by compatriot and gold medal favourite Shi Zhiyong to successfully defend his 62kg crown.
Le, with a distinctive mohican style haircut, won with a total of 322.5kg, including a new clean-and-jerk world record of 182.5kg.
Earlier, schoolgirl Zhou Yan of China put on a master class to grab the gold in the women's 58kg division and nudge the world record. Zhou, who only turned 18 a month ago, took first place with ease.
While her competitors strained every muscle to hoist the huge weights, Zhou hardly had a hair out of place in the two lifts which sealed her win.
The world and Asian Junior champion, matched the old Asian Games record with a total of 220kg and created a new Games mark with 125kg in the clean and jerk.
In gymnastics, China's fears about a possible challenge to their women's team proved unfounded.
The new faces of the Chinese team, Kang Xin and Zhang Nan, led the way as China finished with 147.750 points, an overwhelming 8.825 points ahead of North Korea on 138.825 and Japan in third with 137.825.
The medal ceremony was delayed for 45 minutes as the judges deliberated on an appeal from fourth-placed South Korea over the points from their floor exercise, but the result was not overturned.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, the Games saw their first hint of a drug controversy when three Yemeni bodybuilders were sent home for breaching procedural rules relating to dope tests.