Murofushi captures gold in hammer-throwing

Phil Brown, Associated Press, Busan, South Korea

Japan's Koji Murofushi won the hammer throw at the Asian Games again Tuesday. If he does it three more times, he will catch up with his father.

Weightlifters, meanwhile, have made world records an everyday occurrence. China's Tang Gonghong became the sixth lifter to break or tie a world mark in seven women's events, and two men's records have fallen.

An Asian Games gold was something long awaited for Sri Lanka's Susantika Jayasinghe, often the fastest woman sprinter in Asia but never a winner at the games until she won the 100 Tuesday in 11.15 seconds. She also holds a Sydney Olympic bronze in the 200.

Saudi Arabia's Jamal Al-Safaar was the fastest man, edging Japan's Nobuharu Asahara 10.24 to 10.29 in their 100.

China lifted its gold total to 106 without much help from its stars in table tennis, a sport it used to dominate. South Koreans beat Chinese for the women's doubles gold, and eliminated them in the semifinals en route to the men's doubles title.

Chinese divers had no such troubles. World champions Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia performed more difficult dives and gained higher marks than their rivals as they easily won in women's 3- meter synchronized diving.

On the men's platform, Hu Jia, who shared in a world championship with Tian Liang, joined Xu Hao this time for victory.

China also had two golds in athletics and one each in cycling, shooting, women's team badminton and team rhythmic gymnastics.

Tang won in the women's over-75-kilogram weightlifting division, and lifted 167.5 kilograms in the clean and jerk, breaking the old mark of 165 set by China's Ding Meiyuan at the 2000 Olympics. Tang lifted 120 in the snatch for a total of 287.5.

Kazakhstan's Bakhyt Akhmetov won in the men's 94-kilogram division.

South Korea, adding cycling, wrestling and team dressage equestrian victories to its two table tennis golds, improved to 52 gold medals overall.

But Olympic women's archery champion Yun Mi-jin lost in the semifinals to Taiwan's Yuan Shuchi, the eventual winner, and had to settle for a bronze.

Japan had 35 golds, including two from cycling and one from women's wrestling Tuesday.

On his 28th birthday, Murofushi threw the hammer 78.72 meters - 15 centimeters better than the games record he set in 1998. It still was below his year-old Asian record of 83.47.

Murofushi's father, Shigenobu, won the hammer throw for five consecutive Asian Games between 1970 and 1986. His son said he didn't expect to match that, "but I like the challenge."

India won two track and field golds. K.M. Beenamol beat compatriot Madhuri Saxena by 0.77 seconds in the women's 800, and Bahadur Singh Sagoo won the men's shot put.

Grigoriy Yegorov gave Kazakhstan a gold in the men's pole vault. Japan's Satoru Yasuda matched his height of 5.40 meters but had more misses.

China's Sung Yingjie won the women's 10,000 meters and compatriot Shen Shengfei edged India's Soma Biswas 5,911 to 5,899 in the heptathlon.

In table tennis, women's pair Zhang Yining and Li Nan of China led 3-1 in games but lost the final 9-11, 8-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9, 12-10 to South Korea's Lee Eun-sil and Seok Eun-mi.

Lee Chul-seung and Ryu Seung-min beat fellow South Koreans Kim Taek-soo and Oh Sang-eun in men's doubles.

Thailand won two gold medals, with Praput Chaithanasakun's 2-0 victory over Myanmar's Kyaw Oo in English billiards singles and Opas Ruengpanyawut's win in men's 25-meter standard pistol shooting.

Qatar won two in shooting. Masoud Hamad was the individual men's skeet champion and helped his team win gold.

Japan's two cycling golds came from Shinichi Ota, who led a 1- 2 Japan finish in the keirin race, and Takashi Kaneko in the men's sprint.

China's Li Na won the women's sprint, and South Koreans Suh Seok-kyu and Cho Ho-sung defeated Japan's Makoto Iijima and Shinichi Fukushima 38-11 in points in the men's Madison race.

Both those teams finished a lap ahead of the rest of the field.

China won the women's team badminton gold with a 3-1 victory over South Korea. Meanwhile, its rhythmic gymnasts outscored Kazakhstan 249.750 to 239.950.