Host Thailand celebrates heroics in pool
Host Thailand celebrates heroics in pool
BANGKOK (Reuters): It was Thailand's night at the Asian Games
pool on Thursday as one Thai swimmer set a brave Games record in
the evening's big race and another came within arms-length of a
major upset.
Japan and China won two golds apiece, with freestyle star
Shunsuke Ito anchoring the Japanese to a thrilling relay gold
that kept them two ahead in the overall gold medal battle.
Torlarp Sethsothorn became the instant hero of the Games by
winning the host nation its first swim gold with a record-
breaking feat in the men's 400-meter freestyle.
The race saw a gripping struggle between Torlarp and the
talented Japanese Masato Hirano, who led narrowly through the
first half of the race and seemed to be comfortably in control.
Torlarp hit the lead at the 250m mark -- and gave everything
he had to hold off the Japanese and capture Thailand's first
record of the Games with a time of three minutes and 53.61.
As the crowd at the brand new Thammasat swimming center
erupted, Hirano hit home in 3.54.13, also inside the 3:54.72 set
by South Korean Bang Seung-boon at Hiroshima in 1994
Kwok Kin-ming of Hong Kong won the bronze, while Torlarp's
younger brother Torwai, an early contender, fell back to sixth.
Half an hour later another Thai, Ratapong Sirisanont, took the
spotlight. Ratapong won golds in both men's individual medleys at
Hiroshima after the disqualification of China's Xiong Guoming for
doping.
But, even with thousands of Thai fans shouting him on,
Ratapong could not quite catch China's Zhu Yi in the men's 200m
breaststroke to claim a third.
The Thai was at best in third place for most of the race, but
managed to overtake bronze medalist Yoshinobu Miyazaki of Japan
in the final stretch for silver.
Zhu, swimming in his first international competition, won in
2:16.26 to Ratapong's 2:16.47.
"It feels very strange to have so much attention from the
fans," said freestyle gold medalist Torlarp. "My time this
morning (in the heats) was not very good so I felt a lot of
pressure to perform this evening. I just swam to win."
After joining joyfully in with the Thai anthem during the
medal ceremony, the normally placid crowd even managed a Mexican
wave of celebration.
China, whose stars had appeared to be finally limbering up
when they set three Games records on Wednesday, had a mixed
night.
First Deng Qinsong finished a distant eighth in the men's
freestyle, then the team saw 17-year-old hopeful Ruan Yi
relegated into silver in the women's 100m butterfly by the
powerfully built Japanese Ayari Aoyama.
Aoyama's time of 59.44 was outside the Games record of 58.38
set in Hiroshima by China's Liu Limin but well ahead of Ruan's
1:00.57.
The Chinese came good in the third of the fifth races, when
Zhu beat Thai hope Ratapong, and then added a gold and a Games
record in the fourth.
That race, the women's 100m breaststroke produced a Chinese
one-two as Li Wei beat teammate Xu Shan and Japan's Masami Tanaka
claiming bronze.
Li's time of 1:08.95 beat the 1:09.87 set by China's Dai
Guohong in Hiroshima four years ago.
The final race of the evening was a tighter affair, pitting
Japan's and China's top sprinters against each other in the men's
4X100 freestyle relay.
China's Wang Chuan set the pace in the first leg and they kept
it narrowly until hitting the very last turn with just a 0.06
second advantage.
But Japanese anchorman Shunsuke Ito, the gold medalist in
Wednesday's 100 metres freestyle, managed to overpower Deng
Qingsong in the final laps to give Japan a 10-8 lead in the gold
medal race.